Resolute
by Chaotic Century
Summary: Willow has been yearning for a sense of purpose and belonging. When presented with the opportunity to help a friend, she sets off on a desert journey in search of both. A side project to the Earthling trilogy set prior to the epilogue of "Remain in the Light of the Stars"; Battle Story/Chaotic Century timeline.
1. ZAC 2063: Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This story is set during the "Earthling" trilogy, in ZAC 2063, prior to the ZAC 2065 epilogue of "Remain in the Light of the Stars." It is strongly recommended to read at least "Earthling" and "Remain" in order to understand the context here.  
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy it, and reviews are, as always, deeply appreciated.

 **DEDICATION  
** _For jdoug4118, without whom I never would have "met" Phoenix  
_ _And for Tigerhawk, not only an elder statesman of the online Zoids community, but my dear friend, for assistance with some of the required research. I'm sure you'll "do the thing" someday! ;)_

* * *

 **ZAC 2063  
** _ **Chapter 1**_

So it had all come down to this.

The sun had not yet risen; it merely presented as a pale pink wash of light seeping over the desert horizon to her right, from whence it cast deformed, lengthy shadows over the dunes.

Sixteen dully gleaming Zoids stood in formation opposite her some distance away, with a Pteras hovering ominously over the group. At any moment they chose, she knew, any one of those Zoids could unleash a bombardment upon her. She was out in the open before them, an attractive target if ever there was one.

Her awareness of this fact, that her death could come in an instant, and with very nearly no warning, registered concretely in her body, as her skin seemed to crackle with electricity and beads of sweat wended their way down the center of her chest.

And yet, she was too focused, too determined to feel anything but calm. She knew she was not alone, and she knew she could trust those who would fight alongside her.

Willow sat back in her seat and exhaled, waiting. Zeke was steady beneath her, his feet planted and courage unwavering. He seemed, to all who saw him in the dawn's gentle light, to be glowing, perhaps from some inner strength of will. The Command Wolf and his pilot were a mountain, standing tall and resolute before the storm and the howling winds of fear it bore.

-.-.-.-

 _One week earlier...  
_ Willow found she was strangely drawn to the cemetery.

She had chanced upon it not long after arriving in the Wind Colony a year prior; it was situated in a desolate little corner of the village, on a grassy hill perpetually caressed by desert winds. A young tree stood at the top, with headstones ringing it in not quite orderly rows all the way down to the base of the hill.

There were rarely any visitors. She supposed that some were discomfited by cemeteries, though she herself was not. She found a deep peace in the silence and stillness of this graveyard, and felt far more at home among the lonely ghosts that wandered here than among her fellow villagers. Not one resident of the Wind Colony had ever made her feel unwelcome; she had not had to endure a single instance of rudeness, nor even mild brusqueness. Still, she didn't think it was just her imagination when she sensed a coolness, a distance, or perhaps a superstitious avoidance from many of the other townspeople.

It was here that she finally felt able to let down her guard, to be and do whatever she wished without sparing a thought as to what others might think of her. There was no pretense among these departed souls: though Willow was an Earthling, an alien on this planet, no one was around to care one whit.

She often found herself in the shade beneath the tree at the top of the hill, sitting quietly, breathing in the desert breezes carrying stories from faraway places, reflecting upon the strange twists and turns her life had taken as well as what might still be to come, but above all, when she sat there, she remembered. A cemetery seemed to be the perfect place for remembrance, surrounded as she was by those whose brief moments in this world were now alive only in the memories of those who had once known them.

She was ensconced in her usual self-imposed solitude one afternoon when a familiar voice borne on the wind reached her ears. She looked down the slope to see Leon, the local doctor, pastor of the colony's small church, and her partner's best friend, waving a greeting and making his way carefully up the hill towards her.

She waved back and stood as he approached. "Good day, Willow," he said, removing his dark, wide-brimmed hat and smiling at her warmly. Much of his initial hesitance and discomfort from when they had first met was now long since dispelled.

"Good day, Father," Willow said respectfully, though she smiled warmly at him, too. Leon was one of the few people here with whom she felt comfortable. Perhaps this was because, even though neither she nor Dan had ever told him of her unusual past, she suspected he had made at least a couple of assumptions of his own, and yet he treated her with kindness and affection anyway.

"Now, now," he protested immediately, the lenses of his spectacles glinting in the strong afternoon sunlight. "I told you, you needn't call me that. We're friends."

"I know, I know." She smiled again.

"And I trust you are well?"

"I am. Thank you for asking."

Leon put his hat back on his head and gazed at her curiously. "May I inquire what brings you to a place like this? It's not often I encounter others here. Was someone you know buried in this cemetery?"

Willow shook her head. "I suppose I just...enjoy the seclusion," was all she could think of to say that didn't make her sound hopelessly pitiable. "And you? Are you here to remember someone you've lost?"

"There are many I could visit in this place," Leon said, a touch of melancholy in his voice. "But no, I was hoping that perhaps I could learn something here, or at least get some inspiration on solving a problem I'm having."

Willow regarded him with interest. "What problem would that be?"

Leon sat down in the grass at the foot of the tree and motioned for her to do the same, so she obligingly settled down beside him. From here, they could see much of the colony below, its vast lake shimmering brightly. "I'm doing research, you see," he said. "I'm not only the pastor here, nor just the unofficial doctor. I'm also something of a hobbyist historian."

Willow, who had not known this, was fascinated. Her assigned career track aboard the _Globally_ had been akin to that of a historian, after all. "What sorts of history do you study?" she asked.

"Nothing grandiose, though I think it of consequence just the same." Leon's eyes took in the spread of the farming village below them, a small oasis of green in a vast and unforgiving desert. "I'm trying to write the story of the Wind Colony," he said. "We are but one Republican settlement of many on this continent, and there are, of course, many more still in Delpoi. But it's my belief that every place has a story to tell, and that every story deserves to be heard."

"I know exactly what you mean," Willow replied emphatically. "And I'm in complete agreement."

"You are?" Leon asked, startled.

She nodded. "I love stories. Whether real or imagined, they tell us so much: not only about one another, but about who we ourselves are, and where we're going, and what we might yet be. How can we understand others if we can't see the world through their eyes? How can we know or even dream anything of our future if we remain ignorant of our past?"

Following this spirited monologue, Leon studied her as if seeing her for the first time. "Yes, I think you're right. On all counts."

"Please tell me, what kind of a story is it that the Wind Colony has to share with us?"

"Well, that's just it." He scratched the back of his head. "I've made a lot of headway, but I think I've hit a wall in terms of what I can accomplish here in the colony. I need to cast my net a bit further afield."

"What do you mean?"

"I suppose you wouldn't know this, since you didn't grow up around here, but the Wind Colony is one of the oldest settlements in Europa. It was founded over a hundred and fifty years ago, when refugees fled the tribal warfare that was spreading over Delpoi like a cancer. They came across the Deldaros Ocean by ship, because there weren't many in the way of seafaring Zoid species back then, you see. Also, most of the technology we nowadays take for granted didn't yet exist at the time, because the Earthlings, whose technology would so radically improve our own, wouldn't crash down on Zi for another century or so."

Willow's breath quickened at mention of her people, but she looked down at the ground and managed to keep her expression neutral. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she noticed that Leon was peering just a bit appraisingly at her, and she then realized that, though most anyone on Europa or Delpoi with even a rudimentary education could be expected to know the broad outlines of historical conflicts and refugees and what technology had been developed when, he had nevertheless taken the time to explain these basics to her. Aghast, she looked up at him, mouth slightly agape, heart hammering.

"I knew my best friend wouldn't fall in love with just any woman, you know," Leon said lightly, holding her gaze, his expression kind.

She swallowed, and said nothing.

"I know you're feeling a bit out of place," he continued, turning to face forward again, as though he hadn't just practically dropped a bomb on her. "I've seen the way you hold yourself at arm's length from others when Dan's away, you know. It can be very challenging, to adjust to a new place and new people. And I'm sure Dan's being gone all the time isn't helping matters."

"No, it doesn't," she agreed quietly.

"But he's not someone you should be hiding behind, either. I would love to see you being, well, you, instead of just someone's shy little shadow."

"I know." She sighed. "It's so hard."

"I'd be lying if I said that I know exactly what you're going through, but rest assured, I've had my own difficulties, too." He plucked idly at a blade of grass. "Did you know that Dan and I only met for the first time in the army? We didn't grow up together, and neither of us grew up here."

"You didn't?" Willow said quickly, surprised. She had known that Dan had bought his cottage here after being enlisted for a couple of years, but she had simply assumed the Wind Colony was Leon's hometown, and that that had been what had influenced Dan's choice of where to settle.

"Neither of us had much left to return to after the cataclysm, but we still wanted a place to call home when we were between tours of duty. So we decided to buy houses here, simultaneously. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because we're both so shy with others that neither of us could bear the idea of being all alone in a brand-new town!"

"Really?!" Willow couldn't imagine her calm, composed partner feeling shy or awkward. And Leon! He worked with people all day, whether healing or ministering to them. She had seen for herself how natural and at ease he was around others; it was that very steadiness, in fact, that made people, even strangers, feel comfortable around him right away.

"We've all lost people and places and things we loved, and no one set off on this journey knowing all the answers already. We all had to start somewhere." He pushed his glasses a little bit further up his nose and smiled at her. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, you belong in the Wind Colony just as much as someone who can trace their roots here back for generations. No matter where you came from or how long or short a time you've lived here, this can be your home, too, if you want it to be."

Willow couldn't help but think of the other townspeople then, their polite words and guarded expressions. Had she misread their feelings? Or was it as simple as them sensing her discomfort and reacting in kind? It was so hard to decipher the intentions and emotions of new people; nearly all of her prior experience in navigating these tricky social waters had been with the cloistered and very finite population of the _Globally_ , where she already knew everyone.

"I know you feel like an outsider," Leon continued. "I understand, I really do. Just remember, you have a place here, too. Everyone who lives or has lived here is a part of the larger story of our village, and all of those components are important."

"Thank you, Leon," Willow murmured, letting his compassion settle over her like a soft blanket. "Even though I have Dan in my life again, I - I still feel so...I'm not sure how to describe it. I don't know how to feel lonely anymore, when I know there are people, and even a Zoid, too, who love and care about me. I genuinely don't mind all the time that I spend by myself. I guess it's just that these difficult feelings are larger than that."

Leon nodded. "It sounds like you still have a lot of things you're sorting through."

"I do."

"I have no doubt that you'll get to where you need to be, in due time. We all will. And until then, we'll just keep working on our own particular thorny problems, right?"

Willow realized she had entirely forgotten about Leon's earlier mention of having difficulty with his research. "Forgive me!" she exclaimed, embarrassed. "You were telling me about your work on the Wind Colony's history."

Leon laughed. "Yes, I'd nearly forgotten why I'd come to the cemetery in the first place! Well, to briefly summarize, I've been trying to research the genealogy of several contemporary families who can likely trace their family histories back to some of the colony's original residents. The problem is there is something of a missing link. I've found repeated references in various documents to a certain individual, and I suspect she's the keystone to not only the colony's establishment, but its character. A founding mother, if you will."

"So then why are you having trouble? It sounds like she's the one you need to be looking into."

"Because I don't know who she is," Leon sighed. "I have a name, and those aforementioned oblique references that don't bother to go into much detail about her because her identity and role are so self-evident to the writer, and nothing more. If I could get my hands on some of her papers, or even the ship manifest confirming the timing of her arrival on Europa, it would help me start putting the pieces together."

"Ship manifest?" Willow echoed, bewildered. She had never heard this term before.

"It's a log from a ship that lists passengers, cargo, and departure and arrival information. Basically, I would look for ships arriving at the port city far northeast of here that listed a passenger with her name, and that would give me some leads."

"So you don't have these records?" Leon shook his head. "Then who does?"

"There's a large trading post about half a day's journey south of here called Athraigh Town. It's known to be one of the most active markets in southern Europa. And, I hear it has an amazing library, one very popular with genealogists due to the size of its historical primary source collections."

"A library!" Willow remembered well the feeling of promise and expanding horizons when she had encountered a small trove of books one day in Fort Zephyr. She had heard of these things called libraries, but had never seen one herself. The Wind Colony was far too small and agrarian for such an entity. "You think the records you need will be there?"

"I think there's a very good chance. And if not, the head librarian would know where to point me."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Willow exclaimed. "You should go to Athraigh Town right now and get the information you need so you can write your history!"

Leon seemed amused by her enthusiasm, but shook his head. "I'm afraid it's just not possible," he said ruefully. "I'm the only one in this colony with any medical training beyond the most basic. To go on an unnecessary little jaunt like that without a replacement would be incredibly irresponsible, tempting though it is." He looked past the sprawling community below them to the desert beyond, a bit wistfully, Willow thought.

"Do you miss being in the army?" she asked suddenly.

"A little," he admitted. "As I told you when we first met, I didn't enjoy the violence. But the excitement, the adventure, all of the ridiculous things Dan and I used to get up to…" He paused, his eyes now downcast and taking in the Wind Colony once more. "But sometimes it's important to give up what one personally wishes in order to serve the greater good."

Willow could hear a note of resignation in his voice, though she had no doubt he truly believed in the spirit of what he was saying.

"Dan and I have talked about this, actually," Leon continued. "We both feel the same way. The Wind Colony is our home, and everything in the world that matters to us now is here." He cast a significant glance in her direction. "Especially now that you're finally among us. He and I would do anything for this place and the people who live here. It's that important.

"He feels the best way he can do that is to do what he can to protect it. By being in the army, he can fight against those who would try to do us harm. Me, with this injury, I can't make those same kinds of contributions. But until I'm better I can work to heal the sick and tend the souls in this village...and I can do my best to preserve our past for those who will live here in the future."

"Spoken like a true friend of this colony," Willow remarked, almost to herself. He had gotten her thinking. Leon turned to her and smiled appreciatively at the compliment. "Which is why," Willow continued after a moment, "I'm going to go to Athraigh on your behalf and get those records for you."

"You - you will?"

"Yes, because I believe in preserving our pasts and in helping friends," she declared spiritedly.

Leon couldn't help but laugh. "I must say, Willow, I've long enjoyed your almost relentlessly earnest idealism. It's quite unusual, you know, and all the more refreshing for it."

"Thank you, but I wasn't always like this," she replied, blushing. "There were some...darker times, too. I know what it's like to be tested, to have to keep the faith no matter what, even when you can't find any light on the horizon."

"And life will continue to test you, and I'm sure you will continue to rise to the occasion. I have no doubt, in fact, that you have many an amazing story of your own to tell." He smiled at her again. "Maybe someday I'll be privileged enough to hear one."

"Maybe," she conceded, shyly tucking her hair behind her ear. She saw asteroids and planets and stars sailing by the _Globally_ 's windows in her mind's eye.

"Anyway, if you were serious about going to Athraigh for those records, I'm afraid I can't find it in me to turn you down, and so I very gratefully accept your offer. Could I trouble you to come by the rectory later, and we can discuss the details?"

"Of course."

"You have my thanks." Leon stood, brushing grass off of himself. "And so, for the time being, I will leave you to your seclusion. Until then, Willow." He politely tipped his hat and set off down the hill, long legs carrying him swiftly and a bit lopsidedly away until Willow was quite alone again.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin upon them, closing her eyes, breathing steadily, absorbing the welcoming silence and ethereal memories in this place as though they were precious water slaking a thirst.

Somewhere far below, she knew, there was a simple adobe house, and beside that house sat a white Command Wolf, patiently awaiting the return of its pilot.

At this thought of her dear friend, she smiled. Dan, who had been devoting himself over the last year to climbing the military ranks, had left Zeke behind for his latest tour after volunteering to cross train on the other types of Zoids deployed by the Helic forces. So what better way for Willow to give Zeke a bit of excitement in what was otherwise surely a very dull country life than to go on a little adventure together? She herself had been looking for a change of scenery, she now realized - and a deeper sense of purpose, too.

Willow stood, taking in the headstones and the colony below one last time from this great height. Far beyond, stretching limitlessly to the horizon, the desert beckoned, its countless zephyrs calling to her. She sighed happily and stepped into the bright afternoon sunshine.


	2. ZAC 2063: Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

Zeke's long, loping stride ate up the desert miles. Willow had not been in his familiar cockpit for this long in ages, and she relaxed comfortably into the seat, knowing every control, every switch, every piece of information she could possibly need were all near at hand.

Late morning sunlight glinted off of Zeke's smooth metallic skin, and warm air filtered in from outside through the console's open vents.

"This is so great," she sighed blissfully, removing her hands from the control stalk for a moment to stretch. "Aside from the fact that it's nearly noon instead of nearly midnight, this feels just like old times, doesn't it?"

Zeke kicked up his heels happily.

"You know what's weird? I'm realizing that I kind of miss it over there. Fort Zephyr, I mean. I had some really hard times back then, but Phoenix, and Hafen, and Dan, and you most of all helped me get through. If it weren't for all of you, I don't think I would have made it." She thought of the cold night air in the desert, the dark and reeking remains of the _Globally_ , the terror embracing her when it had seemed, at first, that Zi was completely uninhabited. "I miss...feeling like a place is mine. I felt comfortable on my ship because it was all I had ever known. And after awhile, after I wasn't so afraid anymore, Fort Zephyr was comfortable, too. I knew everything about it and, over time, I managed to make it like it was...just for me, I guess." She paused. "I don't really feel that way about the Wind Colony."

Ahead, a small mountain chain loomed over the landscape, casting short westward shadows. "There's our waypoint," Willow said. "Leon said it would be a nice place to stop for lunch before the final stretch of the trip. You know I love you, Zeke, but it's always been a bit cozy in here. It'll be good to stretch my legs for a bit!"

Upon arrival, Zeke situated himself in a diminutive valley between the two northernmost peaks. It was a secluded spot, where he would be out of view from most travelers passing by the area, but would still be afforded helpful sightlines.

Willow climbed out of the cockpit and appraised their surroundings. They were in a grassy meadow thick with wildflowers and the song of chirping insects. A short distance away, where the vegetation gave way to pebble-strewn bare earth, she saw a wide, lazy stream. A dense thicket of trees stood on the opposite shore, their branches shading one half of the stream. "This looks perfect."

She settled comfortably onto a large rock on the stream's shore, its smooth contours warm from the morning light. Sun sparkles danced over the stream's rippling surface, and the water was so clear she could see straight to the bottom. "It's really beautiful here. What do you think, Zeke?" she asked as the big wolf lay down beside her. He gave a contented growl, clearly already enjoying the sunshine and solitude of this place. Willow laughed. "I'm glad you think so."

They sat together in companionable silence as Willow ate her simple meal of bread, cheese, and an apple. Unseen birds called from the copse of trees across the stream, and the water whispered quietly to itself. Willow found a bit of drowsiness overtaking her amid the haze of bird and insect calls, and the warm air. As noon came and went, the thought of a little dip before journeying on became increasingly irresistible. "Do you think I could just put my toes in, splash around a bit?" she asked Zeke. "It's not too deep, right?"

Zeke tilted his head. His sensors indicated that the water's maximum depth would come up to Willow's shoulders, approximately. Between this, as well as the stream's slow speed, a swim seemed safe enough. He snorted his approval and shifted closer.

Willow stood, removed her boots and socks, rolled up her pant legs, and approached the lightly lapping waves at the shore. Stepping in, her bare feet luxuriated in the soft sand of the streambed. The water was cool and comfortable. She waded a bit further out, up to her knees. "This feels really nice. Oh, look! Fish!" Indeed, small minnows were darting about around her ankles, their slick sides occasionally brushing ticklishly against her.

"I think I may want to have a proper swim, pal." How could she not? The big lake in the Wind Colony was nothing like this: it felt too big and too dark, whereas this little creek seemed friendly and safe. It was impossible to imagine sea monsters rearing up out of the depths to eat you when you could see your own feet at the bottom.

The only problem with a swim, of course, was that Willow didn't know how to. Water had been strictly rationed aboard the _Globally_ , so nothing so outrageously wasteful as baths or pools had existed. Upon her settlement in Fort Zephyr not long after her violent arrival on Zi, Dan had shown her that abandoned oasis' deep spring, housed in the bombed-out atrium. She had never swum in it, though, because it was her only source of drinking water. She'd taken water out of it to put in a repurposed feeding trough, which she'd then used as a bath, and the experience of being almost fully encased in water had been a profoundly new experience for her. Still, it hardly counted as swimming.

Willow, still standing about a quarter of the way to the steam's midway point, looked carefully at the water around her. Even the deepest part of the stream, in the center, looked safe enough because of how slowly the current was moving. She waded back over to Zeke, who, quite relaxed in the sunlight, was looking on with mild interest.

"I - I'm going to try this," she said bravely. "I don't really know what I'm doing, but maybe I can figure it out. It can't be too hard in a stream like this, right?"

With one last look around to be sure that they were alone, she removed the rest of her clothes, piling them atop the warm rock she had earlier been sitting on, and waded back out. "It's a little deeper over here," she called to Zeke as the water rose up to her thighs, then waist, then chest. "Not too bad, though," she added, right before the shallow slope of the streambed abruptly steepened and a river stone shifted beneath her foot, causing her to lose her balance. She tumbled forward into deeper water and went under. Her limbs flailed for a few panicked seconds as Zeke immediately leapt to his feet.

Before he had even gotten to her side, though, she had righted herself and surfaced, sputtering and gasping. Zeke, closer now, reached a front paw forward to give her something to climb onto, but she shook her head, and, with awkward stumbles, was able to eventually maneuver back into somewhat shallower water.

There she sat, coughing, breathing hard, as water streamed in silver rivulets out of her long hair. Zeke put his paw down and whined. He wanted her to come back to shore, where it would be safer.

"No," she said quietly. She pushed her hair behind her shoulders.

Zeke whined again.

"No," she repeated, adamantly. "All I ever do is let you and Dan take care of me, don't you see that?" She shook her head. "Leon was right about me. When Dan's on duty I avoid everyone. And when he's home, I just hide in his shadow. No wonder none of the villagers have tried to get to know me. They probably think I want nothing to do with them." She turned to look at Zeke. "I think I need to start doing some things myself, okay?" With a heavy sigh, she faced the middle of the stream again. "Even when it's hard. Even when it's scary."

Zeke reluctantly retreated back to shore, obviously not liking this state of affairs but always obedient to his pilot.

And with that faithful gesture, her agitation receded. Zeke cared about her, of course, and only wanted to help. What else would she expect from him? She smiled at him then, through the false tears of her dripping face. "Zeke." He looked at her. "You'll always, always be my best friend. You know that, right? Thank you for being so good to me." She stood, and began heading for the deeper water again, although more alertly than before, so she wouldn't be surprised by the sudden change in the streambed's angle. "I'm going to try this once more, and I promise I'll be careful. I need you to stay back unless I go under and don't come up again, okay? Let me do this." She squared her shoulders. "Please."

Zeke held his position as ordered, and gave her his most sharply focused attention so that he could intervene as quickly as possible if she were to find herself in genuine distress.

But she didn't.

She reached the middle with no further incident and slowly fell backward, letting the water hold her up, and there she floated serenely for some time, hair fanning delicately out around her head like some dark, exotic flower in bloom. She sighed contentedly. From this peaceful vantage point, the bright blue sky above seemed infinite.


	3. ZAC 2063: Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

Willow sunned herself on the smooth rock by the stream's shore for awhile to dry off, then reluctantly dressed and climbed back into Zeke. She hated to leave their quiet little mountain retreat; it was so beautiful and relaxing. "Maybe we can come back with Dan sometime," she told Zeke as he trotted out of the valley. "Let's make sure we remember how to get here." They took off south once more, soon leaving the lazy stream far behind.

They traveled for another hour without seeing much but an unvarying sea of rolling dunes and the odd grassy plain or cluster of rock formations until, quite suddenly, Zeke sighted another Zoid in the distance, headed in their direction. There was a warning beep in the cockpit as he presented a closer-up view of it to Willow on one of the cockpit monitors.

She peered at it. "Just a Gustav with some trailers. Pretty unlikely to be hostile, I should think." She recalled her first fight with the bandits back at Fort Zephyr; once she had figured out what to do against an enemy Gustav, defeating it had been relatively easy. "I'm not too worried, buddy. I know what you're capable of," she added with a grin. Zeke accepted the implied compliment with a sassy little woof and kept running, closing out the camera view.

Another hour had passed when another beep came. Zeke slowed to a trot and again showed Willow what he'd detected: two Godoses, and a small van following, all headed in her and Zeke's direction, just as the Gustav had been. She observed the manner in which the two Zoids swung their tails back and forth, smoothing out a trail behind them that the van was able to negotiate more easily than hills of loose sand. "An odd little party," she remarked.

The Godoses surely had to have noticed Zeke's presence by now, as he was well within range of their radar systems, but they made no change to their mode of travel whatsoever, nor did they attempt to open a communications channel. Indeed, the two pilots and driver continued on so singlemindedly it was as if Zeke weren't there at all.

Willow watched them pass by, some half mile to the west. "They really seem to be in a hurry."

It wasn't long before more Zoids and vehicles came into view, all of them coming from the direction Zeke was headed, most of them headed in the direction from whence he'd come. Willow furrowed her brow. "Something weird is going on, here. Where are all of these people coming from? And where are they all going in such a hurry?"

Zoids and jeeps, vans, trucks, and wagons continued to file past. Finally, unable to bury her curiosity any longer, Willow brought Zeke to a halt and popped his canopy. She hailed the pilot of a Barigator that was lumbering by.

The creature stopped, and when its canopy opened, Willow saw a red-faced, middle-aged man. His eyes were wild. "What? What?!" he barked impatiently at her.

"Excuse me," she said politely in Helic. Her skill with the language had improved substantially in the past year since she'd relocated to the Wind Colony, and though there was still much for her to learn, she was already quite proficient. "Where is everybody going?"

"Don't you know?! The Sandburners are coming!" he snapped, gesticulating furiously. "I don't want to be anywhere near there when they arrive. Now, if you don't mind!" With that cryptic and angry explanation, he sealed his cockpit shut again, and the Barigator waddled off just as quickly as its stubby legs could carry it.

"Did that make any sense to you?" Willow asked Zeke, leaning against her seatback and stretching. He growled. "Yeah, me neither."

A Gustav pulled up alongside them then, and its pilot hailed her. "Are you alright?" a young woman called up to Willow. "Is something wrong with your Zoid?"

"No, we're fine, thank you," Willow called back, once more in Helic.

"It's not a good idea to stay here; you should get moving along with everyone else. Do you have someplace safe to go?"

"I'm - I was heading to Athraigh Town," Willow explained. "What's going on?"

The woman's face had gone white. "Why, haven't you heard? The Sandburner Gang are going to level the whole town. You should turn around now! We're all fleeing so we don't get caught up in the destruction!"

"Momma, are they going to get us?" a child asked anxiously from the backseat of the Gustav.

"No, love, no," the woman said to the child, turning. "We're leaving. We'll go stay with Nana for awhile. Everything will be alright." She looked back up at Willow. "Whatever business you have in Athraigh isn't worth your life, I'm sure of it. If you'd like to come north with us, you're welcome to. I have family in Muroa Port Town."

"That's kind of you to offer, but no thank you. I can take care of myself," Willow said.

The woman was shaking her head sadly. "Do you think we would be leaving behind everything we had in the world for no reason? Go on if you must, but you're a fool if you think you can stand up to the Sandburners with only a Command Wolf. I wish you luck, pilot. You'll be needing it."

Willow swallowed, then gave the woman a nod as the latter closed the Gustav's cockpit and steered it off in the direction of all the other Zoids and vehicles that had already gone by.

According to the navigation screen, Athraigh Town was only another two hours away. Zeke was still just standing there amid an increasingly sparse stream of refugees; there were far fewer of them passing by now.

"What do you think?" Willow asked him quietly. She felt more than a bit unnerved by the woman's warning. Who were the Sandburners? And why were they going to do something so awful as destroy an entire town? "Should...should we turn around?" She hated the idea of going back to the Wind Colony empty-handed, to say nothing of having to explain to Leon that he would not be able to complete his work because all the sources he could have used from Athraigh's vast library had been burned to ashes by some desert gang she'd never even heard of.

The blinking blue dot indicating Athraigh's position on the console navigation screen remained precisely as it was, glowing brighter than ever.

"I don't really want to, either." She'd recognized the look on the Gustav pilot's face: sheer terror, covering up a deep vein of grief for all she was about to lose. All these people fleeing Athraigh Town were leaving behind just about everything that mattered to them except for their family members and the clothing on their backs; the fear they had of these Sandburners must have been overwhelming.

Willow was no stranger to fear, to being trapped and helpless in its unrelenting icy fingers. She remembered fearing solitude, the night sky, the cruel bandits who had attacked her in Fort Zephyr, and, above all, that Dan had forgotten her. She couldn't count how many times she had cried herself to sleep in those early days, sick with loneliness and despair, unable to see any light beyond where she stood. Her heart went out to these desperate residents of Athraigh, running for their lives, not knowing what else they could possibly do. All because of a gang that was going to attack their town, for who knew what reason?

Willow did not like it when fear was used as a tool to manipulate, to control, to achieve some malevolent end.

A tight knot of anger rose hot in her chest.

"We need to help them, Zeke," she said slowly.

He snarled and pawed the sand impatiently.

"Let's go," she told him, tilting the steering column forward.

Zeke moved off at a brisk trot, head carried low, ready for whatever was to come.


	4. ZAC 2063: Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

Clouds moved in from the east late that afternoon, smothering much of the sun's light. Athraigh Town was dull and darkened when Willow and Zeke first laid eyes on it, its sandstone structures hunched dimly together as though for protection from some unseen menace. Willow recognized immediately what a busy, lively place it must ordinarily be: like Fort Zephyr, one wide street dominated the community's layout and ran from north to south, with all other roads laid out in a grid pattern off of it. Clustered in merrily chaotic fashion along both sides of this main artery were not just buildings but row after row of street stalls, from which merchants could sell their wares or make purchases from the endless traders who came from all directions to do business.

To call the place empty did not do justice to the very particular quality of hurried abandonment so evident here. Doors swung eerily on hinges; bits of detritus wafted like tumbleweeds down paths. What few electric lights were still on flickered suddenly and then shut off as Zeke slowly approached the northern end of the main street. Willow half-expected to hear the moaning of ghosts over the restless murmuring of the wind. There should have been people beyond counting, voices shouting and bartering and bickering, colorful flags and banners snapping smartly in the breeze. But instead, as Willow climbed out of Zeke's cockpit after situating him beside the northernmost building, there was nothing to see but empty stalls and darkened shops, nothing to hear but the wind. The effect was eerie.

Then, suddenly, she did hear something else: raised voices. Threats. Anger.

"Don't want you destroying things before that gang even gets here," Willow said quietly to Zeke. "Stay here, and if I need you, I'll yell." Her hand reached into her pocket to clutch the small metal object hidden there, and she made her way carefully down the street.

The voices were coming from what appeared to be a large and well-appointed nearby inn on the east side of the street, which no doubt ordinarily did brisk business housing traders and others traveling through the town, but now, like the rest of the town, was nearly abandoned. Willow stepped through the unlatched front door and took a swift appraisal of the taproom she now found herself in. It was an open area with two long tables, several smaller ones, an empty bar, and a developing situation off to one side near the front windows. Three young men, evidently not much older than Willow herself was, had cornered a hooded figure.

"Imperial scum," one of the men was saying.

"We don't need your kind coming around here. We've got enough problems of our own to deal with, without rats from Guygalos infesting our town."

"I'm not Imperial," the figure protested, also in Helic, but his foreign accent belied his words. His voice sounded crazily familiar, but the very idea forming in her mind was ludicrous and so she pushed it impatiently aside.

"No? Then why don't you talk like us? You think we're stupid? We saw that Helcat you arrived in. Military issue."

"What's going on here?" Willow inquired in honeyed tones, coming further into the room. She kept her expression neutral and curious.

The three men turned briefly to her. "You shouldn't be here, sweetheart," the first one told her dismissively. "You're supposed to be evacuating with your family." They obviously had mistaken her for a much younger girl.

"Is there some kind of problem?" she pressed, approaching more closely. "Has this man done something wrong?"

"None of your business," snapped the second. "We're just taking care of a pest."

"Three on one? Not very sporting of you," she noted lightly. A bit of the dim illumination from outside fell across the bridge of the hooded figure's nose when he looked towards her. A familiar constellation of freckles was sprinkled over pale skin. Her mouth fell open. Was it -

But the first man was now at last giving her his full attention. "Get lost," he said threateningly, gesturing towards the front door. "Go find your mother." With this rude dismissal, he turned his back to her again and picked the figure up by the front of his jacket, pressing him into the wall. "Do you know what we do with Imperial vermin like you around here?"

"My mother is dead," Willow interjected loudly, all pretense of being a harmless little girl now cast aside, "and there's something you ought to know about me." Her hand emerged from her pocket, and with a soft click, she flicked open the switchblade she'd been carrying. "I've never liked bullies."

Before any of the men knew what was happening, Willow's hand shot forward like a striking snake, her blade leaving a shallow slash across the back of the first man's thigh. He shrieked in pain and surprise, dropping the hooded figure, crumpling to the floor, and clutching the back of his leg, which was already beginning to bleed profusely. Willow took this opportunity of confusion to give the third man an unexpected shove, so that he fell into the second, who then toppled over the first, until all three were on the floor.

She held her knife in front of her. "Get out of here!" she yelled. "I don't want to see you pathetic lot again, and there's more where all of that came from if I do!"

The uninjured pair, staring at her with wide eyes, grabbed the arms of their comrade and scrambled to their feet, fleeing from the inn. Willow watched them go, and it wasn't until they were well out of sight down the street that she turned back to the hooded man.

"I suppose...I owe you doubly now, my wingless savior," he said softly, a familiar voice speaking now in the Common Tongue. He pulled the hood of his jacket back at the same moment that a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds outside, revealing a shock of copper hair, a red sunrise facial marking above one eyebrow, and preternaturally green eyes.

"Phoenix!" Willow shrieked. "It...it _is_ you!"

She just stood there, utterly stunned, chewing at her lip for a moment, brain working furiously to integrate the reality of his presence before her.

He grinned. Perfect white teeth, tiny gap between the front two. "You're looking lovely as always, Willow," he said gallantly.

At the sound of her name, she was finally able to snap back to the present, and she dove into his arms.

He laughed joyously, kissed the top of her head, and held on tight, face buried in her hair as he exhaled, all irreverent comments forgotten. "Oh, heavens, Willow, I thought I would never see you again."

Tears had sprung to her eyes of their own accord, and she coughed a half-laugh, half-sob into his shirt. "I've missed you so much," she told him. "Are you alright? Did those boys hurt you?"

"Oh I'm fine, darling, just fine. You - are you alright?"

"I think so! I just - that was very, very scary," she hiccuped.

"Scary? You were scared? Had me fooled...and those three clowns, too. I've never seen such a deliciously bloodthirsty gleam in your eye." He paused, recalling watching her take down the last remaining enemy Zoid in a battle against a group of bandits outside of Fort Zephyr a bit over a year ago. "Actually, I take that back."

She laughed, hiccuping again, and pulled back a little, scrubbed her fists against her eyes. "I thought my heart was going to beat right out of my chest," she admitted. "I'm amazed you couldn't hear it!" She pushed her hair back behind her ears and took a few deep breaths, feeling the adrenaline beginning to dissipate.

"You always were just as brave as you were beautiful," Phoenix said fondly, taking both her hands, kissing the back of each. "Thank you, Earth princess." Beams of afternoon sunlight cut across his face, casting long shadows. The green of his irises was so bright they seemed to be glowing.

She could do nothing but smile back at him through tear-glazed eyes, still scarcely able to believe that the friend for whom her heart had ached for so long was...right here. Right in front of her. Less than an arm's length away.

He pulled her to him and embraced her once more, resting his chin on the top of her head, sighing happily. "It's wonderful to see you again. And not just because you so swiftly dispatched those cretins."

"Why were they trying to hurt you?"

"Wrong place at the wrong time? I don't know. Everybody here seemed very stressed today. But honestly, I've no idea what happened. Perhaps it was simply because...I'm different. You would know all about that."

She nodded, cheek still pressed into his chest, arms wrapped tightly around him. Phoenix felt different to her, having apparently gained back the weight he'd shed when lost in the desert. He'd put on some new muscle, too. He was still lean and lanky like he'd always been, like he probably always would be, but now, he was warm, solid, strong. The great fright of confronting those three strangers was still fading, but aside from Dan, no one else could make her feel this comforted and safe.

"I just want to state for the record," he continued, stroking her hair gently, "lest you've thought me some kind of unfeeling monster all this time we've been apart...that I think the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, besides having to leave Heinrich behind to join the army, was leaving you. All alone in that ruin."

"I understand why you had to go. Heinrich needed you. Please...please tell me that he's okay? And that you found him?"

"I most assuredly did. That's a story unto itself, but the part that matters is, he's living with me now and doing just fine. And what about you? I trust you heard from your Dan fellow, yeah?"

She nodded again. "We live in a little village called the Wind Colony," she murmured into his chest.

He nudged her away from him just far enough to look into her eyes. "He came back for you, just like I knew he would. I'm so very glad that...your faith in him was not misplaced." A small smile played about his lips. "'Thank you, Phoenix, for so generously correcting my misguided ways,'" he said in a falsetto voice. "'It's a good thing you're always right, Phoenix.'"

Willow giggled, giving him a little shove, but then turned serious. "I shouldn't have ever doubted you," she said. "Or him. Thank you, for finding Hafen and sending her to me. I don't know how things would have turned out if you hadn't helped."

"Not at all, not at all. I was merely trying to make a dent in the massive imbalance between who owes whom," he replied good-naturedly. "You did save my life out in the desert, after all."

"And then you saved mine, when I accidentally ate those weird berries," Willow reminded him.

"Ah yes, that I did! I'd almost forgotten. But...you've gone and upset the balance again today, with this latest adventure. How can I ever begin to repay you, kind lady?" He winked at her then and grinned through a teasingly, enticingly bitten lower lip.

Willow couldn't help but laugh. Oh, how she had missed him.


	5. ZAC 2063: Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

Willow and Phoenix were seated at one of the taproom's empty dining tables. "We have a lot of catching up to do," he said, pointing out the obvious, "but first things first. You are aware that this is a very dangerous place to be right now, correct? Some gang or somesuch will be descending upon us soon, bearing destruction and mayhem?"

She nodded. "I'd heard as much from some evacuees on my way here. The Sandburner Gang, one of them said?"

"Yeah, that's them. Can't say I'd ever heard of them prior to my arrival here, but then, I'm not exactly a local. Apparently they're pretty bad news, and they intend to burn this whole place to the ground."

"That's what that Gustav pilot told me."

Phoenix arched a brow, and his little sunrise facial marking went right up his forehead with it. "You don't seem especially discomfited by this news."

"Zeke and I are here on a mission," she replied firmly. "And we're going to fulfill that mission, as well as teach this pack of bullies a lesson."

"Willow, you know I mean you no disrespect here, because I've seen what you're capable of. I'll never forget how you took down that group of bandits back at Solas. So I'm not saying this lightly when I tell you: don't get overconfident here. You said you saw all these people fleeing Athraigh on your way in? Well, I actually spoke to a lot of them this morning. These people are _scared_. There's a reason you don't see any residents trying to mount a defense. We don't even know what kind of numbers we're up against!"

Willow folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair. "I don't care," she said stubbornly. "We're staying put."

Phoenix sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Then, you know that means that I'm going to be staying too, right? I'm not going to leave you here to deal with them alone."

"You don't have to do that, Phoenix. If you have someplace to be, then you should go. We're going to be fine, I promise."

"I was forced to leave you behind in uncertain circumstances once, and I told you, that was the second-hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I'm not doing it again. No way."

Willow was surprised by how capably he could mirror her own obstinacy, and was touched by his protectiveness, too. "Then...I guess it'll be the two of us against all of them."

"That it will. May I ask what mission you're on that is important enough to risk your life for? I hope it's so you can save an entire hospital ward full of sick children or something."

She laughed. "No, no, nothing like that. I'm here to visit the library. A friend of mine from back in the Wind Colony needs help with his research."

Phoenix simply stared at her. "You're willing to face down a whole gang of murderous assassins for...some books?"

"Well, when you put it that way, you make it sound ridiculous!"

"Because it _is_ ridiculous, Willow!" His tone was joking, but it nevertheless bore an undercurrent of frustration. He was afraid, she realized. And why shouldn't he be, if these Sandburners were truly as terrible as their reputation suggested? Phoenix had been through a lot, and now seemed to have some semblance of order in his life again. Of course he would be reluctant to jeopardize that, even if it were in the cause of aiding a dear friend.

"I'm tired of - of running from the things that I fear," she explained, quietly now. "I didn't know Athraigh was going to be under attack when I came here. I just wanted to help a friend, and maybe learn a bit more about my new home, so that it would actually...feel like home." She looked up at him; he was resting his chin on his entwined fingers and watching her silently. "I don't expect you to understand, Phoenix, and I certainly don't expect you to protect me from the consequences of my decisions."

He put his hands on the table and sighed. She recognized the resignation it signified. "Well, like I said, I'm not going anywhere. So why don't you tell me about it, so that I _can_ understand?"

She nodded, and gave him a small smile.

"Good." He nodded back. "Right then. Let's go get your overnight things out of Zeke, too, and we'll see if I can't help you fulfill your little mission."

"Thank you, Phoenix," she said seriously.

He shook his head as they stood. "Don't mention it."

They stepped out onto the main street and began walking north. Waning sunlight flickered in and out of the dense cloud cover overhead. Willow looked up at her friend. "I never asked you: why are _you_ here, anyway?"

He laughed. "This is one of the biggest and best markets in southern Europa. Bigger even than Sand Colony. I - I wanted…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I wanted to get a present for my brother, actually."

"Really?" She blinked. "You mean, you're here too, risking your life for something less worthy than an entire hospital ward full of sick children?" She nudged him playfully with her elbow.

"Guess I should have seen that coming," he muttered. "In my defense, I was just about ready to leave when those three knuckle-draggers accosted me. I certainly wasn't planning on spending the night."

"But did you get the present you came for?"

"No. I found the place where I would buy it, but there was no one there to sell it to me."

"What were you going to buy?"

They'd arrived at Zeke, who bent his head low to give Phoenix a friendly growl.

"Heya, Zeke," Phoenix greeted the big wolf. "Long time no see pal, how've you been?"

Zeke bumped Phoenix's shoulder with his nose with impressive gentleness, considering how easy it would have been to knock the young man right off his feet.

Phoenix laughed. "He looks great, Willow. You're taking really good care of him."

"It helps to be a part of civilization again and have actual supplies around to maintain him!"

Phoenix gave Zeke's nose an affectionate little rub and then they moved over to the Zoid's belly, where a small compartment offered a bit of cargo space for a pilot's necessities. Phoenix, being a far sight taller than Willow, helped her retrieve some blankets, an overnight bag, and a little sack of food from the compartment.

"Lie low here until I come back, Zeke," Willow said once they had gathered her belongings. "We may be in for some trouble at some point. Be ready."

Zeke lay down and growled his assent, then tuned his various monitors to more effectively detect distantly approaching Zoids.

"It's a book," Phoenix said suddenly as they walked back to the inn.

"What's a book?"

"The present I was going to buy Heinrich," he said sheepishly.

"Oh, I see how it is. You're lucky I like you so much!" Willow gave him a light smack in the arm. "Anyway, we're here, so we may as well get him that book. I'll help you pick, and maybe you can help me find the documents I need at the library?"

Phoenix swung an arm around her shoulders as they walked along. "Anything for you, my dear."

They hadn't even gotten back to the inn, though, when a loud voice startled them both. "What are you still doing here?!" A black-haired woman in her mid-twenties stepped out of the inn and stared them down, hands on her hips. "Everyone is supposed to be gone!"

"Who are you?" Willow blurted before belatedly realizing she was probably being rude.

"I'm Sophie Hayes, town elder," the woman said brusquely. "And I'm doing a block-by-block inspection to make sure that everyone's complying with the mandatory evacuation orders. Which begs the question - just _what_ are you still doing here in town?" Her violet eyes bored into theirs. "Why haven't you left with everyone else?"

"You're...the town elder?" Willow inquired bluntly, again realizing too late that her manners were lacking, but she simply couldn't help herself. The woman looked like she might be younger than Phoenix.

"Probably not the best title considering my age, but yes, that's who I am: the mayor, basically. So, for a third time, I need to ask you, why are you still here?"

"Why are _you_ still here?" Phoenix retorted irritably, swiftly tiring of this interrogation and attendant bossy tone.

Sophie noticeably blanched. "Because it's my responsibility to protect this town."

"By yourself?" asked Willow.

"Now, where have I heard that line before?" Phoenix muttered darkly. He looked up at the sky, where ever thicker clouds were gathering, and gestured to the nearby open doorway to the inn. "Let's all get inside and have a little chat, shall we? We'll explain everything, and we'd like some of our questions answered, too."

Sophie eyed them suspiciously, but eventually relented, and the three went into the inn and settled themselves at a dining table.

Before Sophie could launch into her aggressive line of questioning again, Phoenix began speaking. "We're both travellers. My name is Phoenix and this is my good friend Willow," he said, nodding to her. "I was planning on leaving once I realized I wouldn't be able to make the purchase I'd come for, but Willow here is quite insistent that she conduct the research she intended to do at your library. And...beat up some bad guys too, apparently."

Sophie looked startled at this last part. "I'm sorry?"

Willow nodded vigorously. "It's kind of a personal thing, you know? The thought of these jerks coming in and making innocent people lose everything they have...yeah, that doesn't sit too well with me."

For the first time, Sophie's face visibly softened. "That's very noble of you, but...the reason I issued the evacuation order was because I didn't want any blood on my hands. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask that you leave, too."

"Good luck with that," sighed Phoenix. "Willow's as stubborn as a Dibison on a bad day."

"Hey!"

"And," he continued, talking loudly over his companion's interjection, "as her friend I feel contractually obligated to remain and make sure she doesn't get herself into too much trouble. Which means you're stuck with me, too."

"Now that that's been established," Willow cut in immediately, before Sophie could protest, "why don't you tell us about these Sandburner losers so we can more effectively mount a defense?" She folded her hands in front of her on the table and just sat there, smiling pleasantly and waiting. Phoenix, noting this, smirked and did the same, folding his hands and gazing at Sophie expectantly.

Sophie, clearly unable to think of anything else to do at this point but to just go along with it, sighed. "Well, if you insist..."

"And we do," Willow interrupted.

Sophie chuckled quietly. She was actually quite pretty when she dropped her stern aspect, Willow thought: her violet eyes sparkled with dynamism and intelligence, and her heart-shaped face lit up when she smiled.

"The Sandburners are a gang that's terrorized Athraigh Town since I became town elder. My grandmother, the former town elder, passed away not long after the cataclysm," Sophie began. "For years they've been demanding 'protection money' from us -"

"Extortion money, you mean," Phoenix remarked.

"Exactly. They want more every year. I guess we're an easy mark; so much trade is done here that they knew we would have the ability to pay. And so, as long as we paid, we were left alone."

"And you didn't pay this time," Willow said. "Why?"

Sophie sighed. "Athraigh Town is my home. It's everything to me. I grew up here, and my grandmother was a respected leader here. If her son, my father, hadn't been killed in the cataclysm, he probably would have been elected to take over for her when she passed away." She licked her lips and looked down at her hands; her shoulders seemed almost to be sagging beneath the invisible weight they carried. "I feel it's my duty to protect the interests of Athraigh, my home, and all of my neighbors and friends. Allowing those criminals to squeeze us dry bit by bit, until our merchants and traders can't even afford to earn a living here anymore, didn't really seem to me like it was protecting our interests. I had to take a stand. I had to _do_ something. I couldn't sit by anymore."

Willow's heart went out to her. "I know exactly how that feels," she said. "Can you tell us more about them? What kind of Zoids they have, how many there are, how they fight?"

Sophie shook her head. "Until now, we'd always paid, and so we were never attacked. The times they've come to threaten us, though, or collect money, they always had Godoses, Guysaks, a Command Wolf, and even an old Glidoler one time. All experienced pilots, it seemed, and extremely well-armed." Willow shuddered involuntarily, recalling the damage a bandit-piloted Guysak had been able to do to Zeke one time in a battle when she had been badly outnumbered.

"And what was it that you planned to do, exactly?" asked Phoenix, somewhat coldly, Willow thought.

"Reason with them if I can. Fight them if I can't," Sophie said, resigned. "I have an old Gorhecks. I need to try."

"That's it? Just you, in some old beat-up Zoid?" Phoenix pressed. "What kind of a plan is that? You realize you'll be killed, don't you?"

"What else can I do?" Sophie shot back. "If I can do right by this place I care about so much then that's all that matters to me! I just figured...I would do what I could and hope for the best. That's all anyone can really do, right?" She looked at Phoenix and seemed to wilt under his stormy gaze. She looked down at her hands again. "Have - have I made a terrible mistake?"

"Whether you did or you didn't, it's probably too late now." Phoenix sighed heavily. "I don't think they'd be amenable to negotiations at this point, and even if they did agree to spare the town, the price for its safety would likely skyrocket."

"We need to figure out what to do," Willow said firmly, undeterred. "Did they give you any kind of a timetable for the attack?"

"Tomorrow at dawn," Sophie murmured. She seemed to be in shock. "What have I done?"

"We're dealing with very, very long odds here." Phoenix's face was ashen.

"But not impossible! Phoenix, those bullies before said you had been traveling in a Helcat. Is Fuzzy here?"

"Parked in a little storage facility just outside of town."

"I need some time to think." Willow stood. "Let's go get Heinrich's book and get to the library. We might just be able to pull this off." Phoenix stood, too, though his face was still drawn and his lips were pressed into a tight line. "Sophie, where is your Gorhecks kept?"

"In...in the hangar on the south end of Athraigh."

"Good. Go there and get it ready for battle as best you can. We'll meet you there later. Come on, Phoenix."

"They're - they're military, you know," Sophie called after them suddenly as they made their way to the front door. Her voice was shaking.

Phoenix whirled around. "Who?"

"The Sandburners. Some unit of the Helic military that went rogue. Please, just leave, before you get hurt. They're very well-trained…"

Phoenix's voice was cold. "Unfortunately for them, so am I." With that, he stalked out of the inn, and Willow silently followed him into the gray afternoon.

-.-.-.-

"What was that all about?" she asked the moment they were out of earshot.

"Nothing," Phoenix mumbled. He put his hands in his pockets and set off down the main street. His strides were so long Willow almost had to run to keep up with him.

"What's wrong? Phoenix, I told you that you could go. You don't have to stay here with me and be a part of all of this." She stopped as a thought occurred to her. "You...you just want to get home safely to Heinrich, don't you?"

Phoenix stopped, too. His next words were almost lost in the whistling desert wind. "That's _all_ I want." He turned around to face her. "Don't you get it?" he continued, his voice rising in volume. "Heinrich had to live for five whole years without his parents, without his brother. His parents won't be coming back, but I'll be damned if he has to live without his brother ever again. I'm all he's got now.

"These people, these Sandburners? They're serious. How do you not see that? This isn't a game, Willow. We're not superheroes; we can't just flit around the desert saving people. Last I checked, Fuzzy and Zeke weren't Gilvaders. We're going to get ourselves killed tomorrow, okay? And for what? Protecting some people we don't even know?" He stabbed an accusing finger in the direction of the inn behind her. "That so-called leader back there? She should have just paid the damn money." Having apparently concluded this tirade, he stared sullenly at the ground, knowing he'd been harsher than he'd meant to be, but also knowing that it would be dishonest to take it all back.

Willow was ashamed. "I'm so sorry that I dragged you into this, Phoenix. I - I wasn't thinking. I just didn't realize."

He ran a hand through his copper hair agitatedly. "I know. It's okay. Really."

Willow stepped tentatively over to him. "Do you mean that?"

"Yeah. Because, right now, it's like this. I'm here. You're here. You're not leaving, and I'm not leaving _you_. You don't like bullies, and neither do I, but I _especially_ don't like bullies who give honest soldiers a bad name." There was a steely glint in his emerald eyes. "So the only option left is to fight them, and to win, so you can go back to the Wind Colony with your research, and I can go back to Heinrich safe and sound."

"Okay," Willow said softly.

"Okay," he echoed, now eager to change the subject. "Let's go to the bookshop first, then the library. I was already at the bookshop this morning and I think I know where the library is, too."

"And I'll start thinking of a plan."


	6. ZAC 2063: Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

Under any other circumstances, Willow would have been speechless with enchantment upon setting foot in the dim, cramped, and utterly charming bookshop. But her mind was already furiously churning through ideas, seeking a way out of their predicament. They were badly outnumbered, had no choice as to the timing or place of battle, and knew very little about what type of enemy they would be facing. While Phoenix wandered off to find a suitable present for his brother, Willow just stood there, nearly blind to the bounteous tomes before her. "Of the two major battles I've won, where I was outnumbered and outgunned," she mumbled to herself, "I won both by utilizing some kind of element of surprise." She moved absentmindedly down an aisle, bumping into a stack of books on a table without noticing and knocking them to the floor. "But how can we have an element of surprise when we don't even know when precisely we'll be attacked, or from what direction?"

"Probably from all of them," came Phoenix's sardonic reply from across the room.

"Shush, I'm trying to think. Let's see, during my second battle against the bandits, they knew what Zoid I had…"

"That's it!" Phoenix appeared from around the corner of a bookshelf. "You and I are strangers here. Unless they've been performing some kind of reconnaissance of the town, they have no idea that there's a Helcat and a Command Wolf to contend with."

"True, but…" She stared off into space as Phoenix moved off again to look through some other shelves, before the cover of a nearby book caught her scattered attention. A woman was holding a sword up in front of a fearsome dragon, which seemed to be shrinking back from the threat. Willow stepped closer and peered at it. "We don't...actually have to win," she mused.

"What are you on about?" Phoenix called from several aisles away. "You want to lose?"

"Of course not, but that's just it." The foggy, faraway look in her dark eyes was rapidly clearing. "We don't have to actually defeat them, we just need to fend them off, keep them from destroying the town, and ideally make them think twice before messing with Athraigh again."

Phoenix reappeared, holding several volumes. "It's a start. Have I ever told you how attracted I am to intelligence?"

She couldn't help but laugh.

"But the question now is, how do we accomplish that kind of psychological feat?"

"Still working on that," she said, then nodded towards the books in his arms. "Find anything good?"

"Sure did. Heinrich always loved fairy tales. I mean, when he was younger, he had an imaginary friend, and they would go off on adventures together in the fields and forests around my parents' farm, looking for fairies and dryads and trolls and stuff. So I found these books of fairy tales for him, to remind him of happier times."

"That's really sweet. I'm sure he'll love them."

"I hope so. He's become quite the voracious reader. Do you know that they never even taught him how to read during those five years he was in the orphanage? Can you believe that? I had to teach him everything, and ever since he's learned to read, he's been obsessed with books."

"He sure is lucky to have an awesome brother like you."

"Oh, now what did you have to go and say that for, Willow? You know I hate how red I get when I blush!" But his green eyes were twinkling as he moved past her towards the front of the shop, conveniently removing his face from view in the process. "If you're getting anything, hurry up and pick it out so we can get to the library."

Willow could have spent hours in that shop, poring over each and every title, but there simply wasn't time. She turned to follow him, and noticed the pile of books she'd knocked over a few minutes prior. A slender red volume was lying face-up on the floor. The words "Desert Illusion" were embossed in white across the top; below this was a painting of the desert at night that was dominated by two massive, glowing moons. She picked up the book, studying it, then joined Phoenix at the counter.

He was placing a handful of silver coins next to the register. "Best I can do," he said with a shrug. "If we're successful and Athraigh survives, then at least I'll have tried to do the right thing. And if we're not, well...guilt over such blatant thievery will probably be the least of my worries." He looked at the book she was carrying. "What have you got there?"

"It's - it's a story about the desert mirage. It sounded cool." They both smiled at each other, remembering. "Do you think five pounds would do for it?"

"Sure, why not?"

Purchases in hand, they left the bookshop and headed south.

-.-.-.-

The Athraigh Town library was an imposing sandstone structure that, visually, at least, lived up to the respect it garnered across southern Europa. The sun was setting as Willow and Phoenix passed under the soaring eaves, but the low-hanging iron-grey clouds stifled so much light that night may as well have already fallen. The building's interior was darker, still, as the electricity seemed to have been cut all over town around the time that Willow had arrived earlier that afternoon.

Willow, unnerved by the unexpected gloom as they ventured further inside and away from what feeble light had managed to fight its way in through a handful of high windows, anxiously sought out Phoenix's hand.

"Are you alright?" he whispered. To speak at conversational volume felt not just inappropriate in this venue, but foolish. It was impossible to tell if they were alone.

"Yes," she whispered back. "I just...don't want to get separated." She didn't need to add that they would have difficulty locating each other again if they did; a maze of grey bookshelves loomed ominously up around them in the darkness.

"We need flashlights or we'll never find the documents you need," Phoenix pointed out. "Even a candle would do. I have a first aid kit with a torch in Fuzzy. Do you want to head back?"

That was when both of them noticed a pool of light somewhere ahead. They looked questioningly at each other, Phoenix's green eyes bright even in the shadows. He nodded at her once, and they slowly stepped forward, as quietly as they could. Willow's free hand found the switchblade in her pocket.

The bookshelves ahead ended abruptly to reveal an open reading and study area furnished with a number of large wooden tables topped with copious darkened lamps. Off to one side, a man was hunched over what appeared to be a sheaf of technical diagrams. A tall stack of books teetered threateningly beside a candle he had nearby.

"I hear you over there, so you may as well come over and introduce yourselves," he called, not once looking up from whatever he was studying.

"He doesn't look armed," Willow whispered.

"Pretty sure I could take him regardless," Phoenix replied, sizing up the man's thin neck and narrow arms. He held Willow's hand tightly, and together they emerged from the bookshelves' shadows. "Hello there," he said in a normal volume. "We didn't think we would find anybody left in town."

"It's the best time to do some research, don't you think? When you've got the library all to yourself? No wailing children, no clueless patrons...it's so very peaceful. And yet, even in an evacuated town, I cannot find peace, it seems, for here you are."

Willow blinked, unsure if he were joking or not. As they got closer to the man's table, she could see he looked to be in his mid-forties, and had chest-length light brown hair that originated at a sharply receding hairline. When they were at last standing before him, he finally looked up. He had an impressively beak-like nose, while his lively, hawkish eyes were framed by long, bushy eyebrows. His gaze was so penetrating that Willow unconsciously took a step backwards, half concealing herself behind Phoenix. "Who are you?" she queried shyly.

"Merely a wandering scientist, my dear, and not a hostile one either, so there's no need to hide behind this strapping boyfriend of yours."

"I'm not -"

"He's not -"

The man guffawed; such a festive sound seemed to brighten the darkness around them. "Well, aren't you two just completely in denial?"

Phoenix flushed severely, but maintained enough presence of mind to change the subject to less awkward matters. "What are you still doing here? You know it's not safe here, right?"

"Indeed, I do know, but as I said...there's just nowhere in the world so good for research as an empty library in an evacuated town that is shortly to be reduced to rubble!" He laughed again, loudly.

"What - what are you researching that's so important?" Willow asked, emerging from behind Phoenix somewhat. She squinted at the papers he was studying.

"Oh, just chasing down some silly notions I've had as of late regarding how to improve my holographic duplication project." He gestured to a small black object on the table beside him. When his two visitors regarded him blankly, he clarified, "A Zoid modification device dedicated to the ancient art of making one see what is not there."

"And what do you hope to do with that information?" Willow asked.

"I'm not entirely certain." The man looked less than utterly self-assured for the first time in the entire conversation. "I think I create absolutely brilliant inventions, but the rest of the world doesn't always see them that way," he lamented.

Phoenix appeared to be mulling something over. Willow knew from experience to leave him to that, for she would find out in time what it was that he was pondering. "My name is Willow, by the way. And this is my friend Phoenix."

"'Friend,' eh?" the man chortled. "Of course. Just friends. Right. I'm Dr. D."

"'D'?" Willow echoed. "What does your initial stand for?"

Dr. D frowned. "If I told you my real name, you'd laugh at me."

"No, we wouldn't, we promise!" Willow pleaded. She elbowed Phoenix, who started, then half-heartedly agreed, "We won't laugh."

Dr. D looked around the room as if attempting to divine the location of nearby eavesdroppers, leaned forward conspiratorially, and then, after a pregnant pause, sat back again. "I'll think about it," he said.

Willow was deflated, but Phoenix barely took any notice of her disappointment. "Well, it was nice meeting you, but Willow and I have some -"

"- making out to do in the corner?" Dr. D cut in, eyebrows raised. "By all means, don't let me stand in your way. Love, after all, is the greatest force in the universe. Far be it from me to interfere."

"- genealogical research to do," Phoenix finished lamely, blushing again.

"Oh, is that what you kids call it these days?" Dr. D said. "Right, right, I completely understand. Go on with you, then." He pointed. "Genealogy and local history are that way."

Willow was giggling quietly. Phoenix sighed. "Yes, yes, just rub it in, why don't you?" They started off in the indicated direction before he realized that they still had no way of reading section markers, let alone the spines of the books, in the inky blackness. "Got any extra candles, Doc?" Phoenix called.

"Just one. I suppose I could lend it to you."

"Thanks, mate." Phoenix returned to Dr. D's table and took the proffered candle, also using the opportunity to get a better look at the schematics he was studying. "What's that?" Phoenix asked, pointing to the diagram.

"My, but you're nosy!" Dr. D exclaimed. "No matter, though; a curious mind is an open mind, and we scientists do so love an open mind! Perfect for stuffing with ideas and hypotheses!" he cackled. Phoenix blinked. Dr. D straightened his throat. "This, young man, is the illusion unit I've been building for the last several months." Willow came over to see, too. "You simply install this device into a Zoid's command port. Once properly integrated, it significantly expands the capabilities of Zoids that are already designed to utilize optical stealth, such as Helcats. There are just two problems, though. One, Helcats in the Republic are scarcer than hen's teeth! It's been impossible for me to test it out."

"Oh, Phoenix has -" Willow began, but Phoenix swiftly interrupted, "And what's the other?" Willow shot him an irritated look over Dr. D's hunched form, but Phoenix just gave her an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

"The other problem is that this unit can't yet really work on its own. There needs to be a control center, as it were, somewhere nearby, so that the Helcat pilot can focus on, well, piloting, whereas the second person will be in charge of managing the holographic projections. It would be cognitive overload for the Helcat pilot to try and take care of all of that while still fighting a battle, you see. Although, I suppose later designs could perhaps incorporate an algorithm utilizing artificial intelligence to manage the projections without a second party," he mused thoughtfully.

"So what would this 'control center' need to be like?" Phoenix prompted, nudging him back to the matter at hand.

"As currently designed, just about anything within a couple of miles of the Zoid in question would be fine, as long as it had a relatively advanced electronics system. A military base, or a mobile platform such as a properly-equipped Zoid could work, for example."

Willow stared at Phoenix with wide eyes. She now knew what it was that he'd been pondering. "Cool. Looks really interesting, good luck with that," she said to Dr. D, then grabbed Phoenix's hand and all but hauled him into the stacks.

"Have fun, lovebirds!" Dr. D called after them.

"Heavens, do I wish he'd stop with that," Phoenix muttered. "Salt in the old wound."

"Come on, Phoenix, focus!" Willow admonished in low tones. Her eyes glittered in the candlelight. "I know what you're thinking, and I'm on board."

"You are?!" Phoenix paused, confused. "But I thought... Are you and Dan just friends nowadays, or -"

She smacked her forehead. "Not _that!_ The device Dr. D is building. It's perfect."

"Oh." Phoenix was skeptical. "We have no idea if it even works. He said he's never even been able to test it. I'm also not completely sure I trust that guy. But...it does seem kind of promising..."

"It might be our only chance. Unless the Sandburners' reputation has been significantly overblown, we'll likely be hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. But we don't actually need to outnumber _or_ outgun them. Remember what I said before, back at the bookshop? We don't actually have to win, we just need to get them to get lost."

Phoenix's viridescent eyes lit up and he nodded excitedly. "Right! Make them think this is a fight they can't win without massive casualties. Make the price too high to bear."

"Exactly."

He grinned impishly at her. "Have I ever mentioned how insanely hot an intelligent woman is?"

Willow's gasp of laughter rang out around the silent library. "Come on, Romeo. Let's find my documents and get to work."

"Who's Romeo?"

"Oh, right. I'll tell you another time."

-.-.-.-

Willow and Phoenix returned to Dr. D some time later, each bearing large quantities of books to the other end of the table, where they would have space to work. Phoenix set their candle down. "Okay, we're on a tight timetable here, so let's sort the wheat from the chaff and then I'll help you take notes or make copies or whatever it is that you need."

"Awesome. You're the best, Phoenix."

"I try."

Dr. D glanced over at them with an arched brow but said nothing, and silently returned to his work.

They settled themselves side by side at the table and began sifting through the mountain of items they'd collected. "So tell me what we're looking for, exactly," Phoenix prompted as he began rapidly scanning covers and flipping through books.

"Anything that mentions the Wind Colony. Or - what was her name again? Leon said it would really help if I could locate any information whatsoever on someone named...named…" She thought. "Aer! Aer Dírithe. She's kind of the keystone to all the work Leon is trying to do, apparently."

There was a pause, then Phoenix raised his eyebrows and looked over at her. " _This_ Aer Dírithe, you mean?" He innocently held up a slim, beaten-looking volume with the woman's name embossed in tattered gold on the cover.

"Phoenix!" Willow practically screamed. "That's her! How did you - where did you - "

He shrugged and grinned. "I just grabbed a bunch of books from the section that looked like it was specifically dedicated to southern Europa, and there it was, in there with the rest of them." Willow gave him a look just then, a look suffused with such awe, delight, and adoration that it set his pulse to racing. "Would - would you like to look at it?" he coughed.

He handed it over to her, and she took it, but did not immediately dive into its pages. Instead, she first gave him a smile so warm and heartfelt that his breath caught in his throat. "Thank you," she mouthed silently.

"You're welcome," he somehow managed to mouth back.

She had one more heart-melting smile for him, then she opened up the book to examine its contents. Phoenix, for his part, took a long, steadying inhale, seeking to calm the electricity streaking through his insides, then picked up the volume nearest at hand to see if it contained any information on the Wind Colony. Not that he was currently able to concentrate on anything in the slightest.

"It's her diary!" Willow shrieked mere seconds later.

"Your caterwauling is so very conducive to my work!" Dr. D groused good-naturedly from the other end of the table.

"Look! Look! Right here! It starts when she still lived in Delpoi!" Willow squealed, ignoring Dr. D entirely and shoving the book into Phoenix's face. She was leaning so far out of her chair she was practically in his lap. "Do you know what this means?!"

"That...I did a good job?"

Willow twisted around in her seat to grip both of his shoulders and stare at him with wild eyes. "The very best job!" she cried emphatically.

"Then how about a -" Phoenix wasn't even able to finish his sentence before Willow had thrown her arms around his neck and planted a delighted kiss on his cheek. He touched it dazedly, eyes closed, grinning from ear to ear. "Read my mind," he sighed blissfully.

"Are we _really_ continuing to abide by the fiction that you two aren't a couple?" Dr. D was casting a disapproving glower in their direction, though there was a smile lurking about his mouth.

Willow and Phoenix looked at each other, saw in one another's eyes the bonds of friendship and affection that they would always share, and laughed until they shed mirthful tears.


	7. ZAC 2063: Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

Willow and Phoenix made their way down the commercial street back to the inn, arms once again laden with books, including, most importantly, Aer's diary. Several other useful finds they'd made at the library included the diaries of other early Wind Colony settlers, land purchase and holdings records dating back to the Colony's first governing bodies, and reams of ship manifests that they hadn't had time to pore over. It wasn't until Willow's growling stomach had become impossible to ignore in the hush of the library - she hadn't eaten since her small lunch by the creek and had had a good deal of excitement since then - that they had finally realized it was time to move on to more pressing matters. Such as eating, and laying out the groundwork for a defense of Athraigh Town.

Back at the inn, the items they'd retrieved from Zeke's storage compartment were right where they'd left them, on a table next to the bar. Willow rummaged around in her food sack. "I haven't got much, but...we could split some of this fruit and bread?"

"Willow. Darling." Phoenix took her hand in both of his and gazed lovingly into her eyes. "You've already very much done the whole sharing your limited food supplies with me thing, and for far longer than you ever should have had to, at that, and I absolutely adore you for it. But you'll never have to do that for me again." He gestured to the pair of swinging doors behind the bar. "This is an inn, where they serve food. There's enough for both of us for the next few months, right there in the back."

"Oh. Of course," Willow giggled sheepishly.

Phoenix, still holding her hand, led her through the doors, where a wonderland of stored provisions met their eyes.

-.-.-.-

"So what's our game plan for the night?" Phoenix asked right before shoving an indecorously large bite of cheese sandwich into his mouth. He gave her a flirty wink and somehow managed to look good doing it, stuffed cheeks and all.

They were seated once more at a table in the inn's dining area. Willow laughed, idly stirring her soup - cold, as the town's solar power generators were quite useless by now - and thought. "Sophie's probably waiting for us down at the hangar."

Phoenix nodded. "She's going to have to prep for her role tomorrow, too."

"I know." Willow peered at the small device sitting on the table beside her that Dr. D had given them before they'd departed the library. It certainly didn't look like much. Would it be enough?

Phoenix was studying it in the dim candlelight, too. "Do you think she can handle this?"

Willow looked up. "Fuzzy?"

"No, Sophie. She seems pretty tough, but when we left her before...I don't know. It looked like she was suddenly traumatized or something. Like the gravity of her decision was only just then becoming clear to her."

"You're probably right. But underneath all of that, I'll bet she's got a spine of steel. She's clearly motivated to save this place, and that kind of drive can lend courage to even the biggest of cowards. Which she clearly is not." She took a spoonful of soup. It wasn't especially satisfying, given its temperature, but nearly anything could taste good if one were hungry enough. "I think you were being kind of hard on her before."

"Yeah, I know. I probably was." He sighed. "I guess I just don't really get her thinking, or this whole scenario in general."

"What do you mean?"

"It all seems so pointless to me. Just pay the money, big deal. This town must be rolling in it, with all of the trade that they do. Would it really hurt them so much? I understand standing your ground to defend your ideals, but...what good are those ideals when real people are suffering?"

Willow shook her head. "A famous philosopher who lived hundreds of years ago back on my planet once said, 'Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.' Meaning, Sophie's taking a chance in hopes of making things better for her people," Willow argued. "It can be scary to forge ahead, to deliberately enter uncharted territory. I think she was really brave to do what she did, not really knowing the consequences, even if it could also be considered reckless." She looked over Phoenix's shoulder, at nothing in particular. "I guess I'm better at dealing with uncertainty than I used to be. I probably would have made the same choice, having been through all that I have."

"You and I have had very different past experiences, Willow. I'll never forgive the Empire for drafting me when that meant having to leave Heinrich behind all alone, but don't forget that I lived happily there for eighteen years, until the cataclysm. Sure, we didn't enjoy the same freedoms that citizens of the Republic did, but my family was successful. Things were stable for us, and it was because of that stability that we were able to thrive." He took another enormous bite of his sandwich, chewing thoughtfully. "That's what I want now, for Heinrich and myself. It took years for me to find the calm that I now have in my life again, and Heinrich has spent most of his short existence in a state of constant upheaval. If I were the town elder here, and all I had to do was pay some army also-rans some money in order to keep the peace, then that's what I'd do."

"I understand," Willow said. Everything he was saying made total sense. She hadn't been here for the cataclysm, hadn't seen the devastation it had wrought. All of her siblings had been taken from her at once; she hadn't had to go years with the knowledge of their suffering weighing so heavily upon her spirit.

"But you disagree," he prompted. "I realize I don't really know a lot about what life was like for you before you crash-landed here."

"No, I don't think I did ever tell you much about my time aboard the ship." Willow put her spoon down and sighed. Phoenix's eyes were glittering in the candlelight across the table. She knew he genuinely wanted to understand. "Well...I grew up with a very strict kind of governance, too. Our freedom on the _Globally_ was even more curtailed than yours. What we ate, what we learned, what we read, how much water we were allotted each day for drinking and washing, even family structure and procreation..." At this last, Phoenix raised his eyebrows. "All of these things were rigidly controlled by an unelected group of Councillors. It wasn't until I crashed onto Zi and got to speak with Dan that I learned what life was supposed to have been like."

"That doesn't sound all that awesome," Phoenix conceded.

"On the _Globally_ , I got to see the dark side of what you call 'stability': unaccountability. Corruption. Opacity in all of the decisions made, even though they affected every facet of our very lives. And worst of all, trying to hide all the problems, sweep them under the carpet and pretend they didn't exist, which had devastating consequences."

"Like what?"

"Let's put it this way: the reason we crashed onto Zi, killing everyone aboard but me, was because one of the only colonists who was allowed to own a weapon was mentally ill. He shot the only two people remaining who knew how to pilot the _Globally_ and land it safely."

"I, um. Wow."

But Willow wasn't done. "The problem there, besides first-degree murder and ushering in a near-genocide, was that mental illness as such did not officially exist among us Earthlings. Outbursts and breakdowns were explained away, quietly swept aside. No one was treated for whatever problems they had. So what do you think that leads to? A mentally ill person with a gun. Which means that the only argument one could muster to defend the level of oppression and control we endured - that it was necessary to keep us all alive as we crossed the galaxy - was rendered moot in the end."

Phoenix had nothing to say to this.

"And lastly, you know how I feel about bullies. What those bandits did to me, what they did to Zeke, what they did to you, even…" Her gaze was distant, and her soup quite forgotten. "Dan told me once that there might come a time when Zi needed a hero. He taught me how to pilot a Zoid not just so I'd be able to defend myself if I were in danger, but so, if I were ever called upon to do so, I could step up and fight for the greater good, for what was important." She met Phoenix's green eyes. "I take that responsibility very seriously. And underneath your hesitation and your desire to shield Heinrich from more pain, I know you do, too, and that's why you're still here."

There was a pause, then Phoenix nodded slowly. "You're right," he admitted. "The military is supposed to protect its citizens, not harm them. When Sophie told us who these guys were, it made me...so angry. They're spitting on everything we were ever taught."

"Exactly. There's no honor in their motives. But this is so much bigger than the two of us and what we think. The meteorites fell in Athraigh Town, too, right? These people have suffered, too. I don't see anyone else but Sophie stepping up to be their hero. She can't do it alone. So that leaves me." She leveled her gaze on him. "And you."

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak, and Willow thought he might dispense with one of his trademark jests in some desperate attempt to lighten the heavy mood. But instead, he said softly, "I've always admired you, Willow. You know that, don't you? You have been and continue to be brave in ways that I never will be."

"Making the choice that you did today, to risk your comfortable life with Heinrich not just for my sake but for a bunch of strangers...that's brave, too." She stood to bring her half-eaten bowl of soup back to the darkened kitchen. "My hero," she said affectionately, ruffling his hair.

"Tell you what," he responded immediately, and now Willow knew for sure a joke was coming. "Forget the Sandburners, forget this town. Let's go someplace private and you can keep on doing that with those magic hands of yours, and if you want to throw in some more fawning about my being a hero, that's cool, too." He looked up at her and grinned.

As usual, Willow couldn't help but laugh, but then she paused, thinking. "Speaking of private, where were you going to stay tonight? I know neither of us is incapable of camping outside under the stars, but…" She smiled shyly. "We've got this inn all to ourselves, so - so I thought..." She broke off, blushing, too embarrassed to articulate what she needed to say.

"Oh, stars! Willow, are you propositioning me?" Phoenix's bright eyes were wide as his hand flew to his chest. "What would Dan have to say about that, I wonder? Never mind those bullies from this afternoon; will the entire Republican army be after me once he finds out?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, then noticed her stricken expression. "Oh goodness, dear, I was only joking. My apologies; it's almost a reflex by now to say whatever's completely inappropriate."

"No, I know, but…"

Phoenix stood and enveloped her in his arms. It was then that she realized that he already knew what she had wanted to ask. "Willow," he murmured softly into her hair, "would it be alright with you if we shared a room tonight? I'd rather not be alone after getting jumped by those goons earlier, and besides, your company is always so lovely. It'll be just like old times. What do you say?"

Willow, overwhelmed with gratitude, simply nodded. She listened to his heart beating steadily against her ear. Being with Phoenix, she realized, made her feel like, wherever she happened to be, she was already home. Dan made her feel that way, too. Why? What caused this? Was this what it was like to be truly seen and understood, just as she was?

This dawning realization gave her the courage to say what she had wanted to say, even though Phoenix had already read between the lines and spared her having to voice it aloud. She now knew just how much he deserved to hear it.

She pulled back from his embrace and looked up into his kind eyes. "I've really missed you, Phoenix, more than I'll ever be able to express adequately to you, and - and while we're both still here, I want to be with you as much as I can."

There. She'd said it. Bravery wasn't always unflinchingly staring down death; sometimes, it was moving purposefully into a place of unease and remaining there, feet planted, steadfast as a mountain despite the discomfort. And the reward, this time, was that the fondness written on Phoenix's smiling face was indescribable.

"Thank you for saying that," he whispered. "You've no idea what it means. And I feel precisely the same way." He gathered up some of their belongings, handed her the candle, and took her hand, leading her towards the stairs. She sensed immediately that another joke was imminent, because he felt awkward sometimes too, and used humor to address it, and she was quite familiar with his comic timing by now.

He didn't disappoint. "Shall we select our honeymoon suite, then, darling? Only the best will do for my princess."

"But of course, my dear," Willow replied gallantly. "And after that," she added more seriously, "let's get going. Sophie and Dr. D are waiting for us."

"Now that I know how good at motivational speeches you are, how about you meet up with her and get her on board with the plan? I'll bring Doc over to Fuzzy so we can get cracking on installation. Want to meet us there later once you're done with Sophie?" He had begun ascending the stairs, but turned to her then with a sweet smile, as if just remembering something. "And I promise that you and I won't be parted for long."

Her laugh was musical. "Perfect," was all she said.


	8. ZAC 2063: Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

Willow found Sophie seated beside her Gorhecks, her back against the creature's front foot and her knees pulled up to her chest. The feeble light of a day passing on fought its way in through banks of windows near the ceiling, but a bright lamp next to the Zoid's belly provided most of the dim room's illumination.

"Sophie?" Willow asked tentatively, not wishing to startle her.

The young woman looked up and saw Willow standing in the hangar's doorway, but said nothing. Willow walked over and took a seat beside her. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"Do you know...this was my grandmother's Zoid, from back when she was town elder?" Sophie whispered. Her eyes were reddened and swollen. "Almost all of the Gorhecks on Zi were killed in the cataclysm. This one was lucky to survive, but tomorrow…" She swallowed and blinked rapidly. "This is all my fault."

"You did what you thought was right for your people," Willow corrected her firmly. "How could anyone hold that against you?"

The Gorhecks made a low, sympathetic sound, turning its head to be closer to Sophie. She touched its jaw tenderly, and Willow recognized immediately the strong bond these two shared, just like her and Zeke, just like Phoenix and Fuzzy. "What's its name?"

Sophie gave a little shuddering laugh. "Daisy," she said. "Not my first choice, but she had been named long before I was even born. She was given to my grandmother upon coming of age; Grandmother was just a teenager then, I suppose. That's what she named her."

Willow smiled up at the Gorhecks' shiny purple canopy glass. "It's good to meet you, Daisy."

Daisy replied with a friendly growl, but then nudged her pilot's shoulder gently with her snout when Sophie began weeping. "I'm so sorry, Daisy," she sobbed. "You deserved better than this."

"Hey, hey," Willow cut in, before Sophie's crying had a chance to escalate even further. "Listen to me. You can't give up now. Phoenix and I need you tomorrow. Daisy needs you tomorrow. This whole town needs you tomorrow!"

"But - but what can I do with only one Zoid? Against all of them?" She swiped tears from her eyes.

"Well, it just so happens that Phoenix and I have a plan, and you're an important part of it. But you won't be able to help us if you're convinced that all of this is pointless."

"I genuinely don't mean to sound ungrateful for your selflessness, Willow. But two more Zoids against their number isn't anywhere near enough to make a difference."

Willow grinned. "It's not just two more. But we'll get to that later. Right now, what's most important is getting you on board. This morning, when we first met you, I was impressed right away with how steadfast and confident you were. You had made your choice and knew exactly why you had chosen that way. You could have kept caving in to the Sandburners; you could have made Athraigh more and more vulnerable to their power. But you decided to stand up to them, instead. Why?"

Sophie stroked Daisy's chin. "Because it's my responsibility to protect this town."

"And it's your responsibility because you're the town elder. The residents here chose _you_ to be their leader, and that means they trust you to do what's best." Willow gave her a significant look. "This is their home. This is _your_ home. What could possibly be more important than that?"

"Nothing," Sophie agreed softly. "Athraigh means everything to me, and to my family dating back generations."

"We could argue until the end of time about whether or not you should have taken a stand against the Sandburners. Personally, I would have done as you did. But whether you were right or wrong, you've cast your lot, and the time has come to back that up. If you give up hope now, you'll be giving up everything."

Sophie was staring at her knees. She sniffled. "I guess I'm just not as brave as you are."

"It's okay to feel scared," Willow told her gently. "Do you think I'm not? I'm terrified! Phoenix is, too. But courage isn't the absence of fear, it's letting the fear in without allowing it to alter your path."

Sophie sighed. "I know you're right. It's just…"

Willow put her hand on Sophie's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Take it from someone who lost everything, and I do mean everything, all at once, and thought there was nothing left. Even in deepest darkness, there is _always_ light to be found. Have faith that it's there, even if you can't see it. You're so much stronger than you will likely ever understand."

Sophie smiled warmly at her, encouraged by these words. "Thank you, Willow. You're right...this isn't over yet, and I need to do my best." She inhaled deeply, and let the breath out in one long stream. "For Athraigh, and for the things that I believe in."

"You don't know how happy I am to hear you say that. So what do you think, Daisy? Are you in, too?" Daisy nodded her head emphatically and pawed the concrete floor. "Fantastic." Willow stood, pulled one of Dr. D's devices out of her pocket, and grinned widely at Sophie. "And now, can I perhaps interest you in a possible miracle?"

-.-.-.-

"So...you two really _are_ just friends?" Dr. D's face, visible over the side of Fuzzy's open cockpit, was skeptical.

Phoenix pushed himself out from under the Helcat's console, where he'd been installing the illusion unit. It was enormously cramped under there for someone of his height, but there were very few people he trusted enough to work on his Zoid. "Yeah, we are. Pass me that screwdriver there? I want to make sure this thing doesn't get jostled out of position if Fuzz does anything more taxing than skip through a flowery meadow."

Dr. D sullenly handed over the screwdriver, though his mind was obviously elsewhere. "But the closeness! The way you two look at each other! How could it be anything but romance, foreordained by the stars?"

"Let me ask you something, Doc. Have you ever been in love?" Phoenix inquired from deep within the footwell.

"Have I - ? What an impertinent question, young man!" he scolded.

"I'll take that as a no." Phoenix tightened the last screw as much as he could, then aimed the flashlight up to evaluate his handiwork. It would have to do until he could get back home to Socracht, where an acquaintance at a well-appointed local repair shop would be able to lend a hand. He emerged from below the console once more. "Long story short, Willow's already with someone, someone she loves very much."

"But don't you love her? Shouldn't you fight for that love?" Dr. D demanded.

"Of course I love Willow! She's smart, talented, courageous, and kind, and also one of the most beautiful women I've ever laid eyes on. Everyone else seems to pale in comparison."

"But…?"

"But it's because I love her so much that I respect her wisdom and choices. Who am I to say that I'm better for her than Dan? Isn't that her decision to make?" He shook his head and smiled. "It hurts to love someone and not have that love returned, but I also can't describe to you just how lucky I feel to have met her, and not just because she's saved my life multiple times. Trust me when I say, she's something special. There aren't too many people in this world I would have stayed in Athraigh for, but Willow is one of them."

Dr. D seemed to be considering all of this very carefully. "I suppose," he ventured, "that for all of the many things that I know - and let me assure you, I know a great many things - there are perhaps even more things that I don't."

Phoenix grinned. "Well, you wouldn't be much of a scientist if you thought you knew everything, right?" He began pressing a few buttons on the console, bringing up Fuzzy's settings and programming menus. "Let's have a look, shall we? How're you feeling there, Fuzz?"

The Helcat snarled and squirmed a little bit.

"Doesn't seem like the additions are taking as well as they could," Dr. D pointed out.

Phoenix cycled through a few more menus, tweaking their settings. "Come on, I know you can do it," he muttered under his breath. A monitor beside him showed the new system's linkage levels improved, but not yet fully integrated. "Just do your best, Fuzz. You've got this."

Fuzzy growled, lashing her tail back and forth for a couple of minutes as she concentrated. Then, suddenly, a pleasant-sounding chime told Phoenix the system linkage was now complete. He breathed a sigh of relief and gave the console a little pat. "Wouldn't have expected anything less from the best partner I've ever had. Thank you."

Fuzzy mewed happily, quite pleased with herself.

Dr. D nodded in approval. "If you'd been any less bonded with your Zoid, I don't think you would have been able to pull off a difficult upgrade like that so successfully. You are to be commended for your devotion, young man."

"Thanks, Doc. Fuzz and I have been through a lot together. I trust her, and that's one of the reasons why, against the odds, I think we're going to be alright tomorrow."

"Hey!" a voice called from the darkened doorway. Willow was standing there, waving. "How's everything going?"

"Be still my heart," Phoenix murmured to himself. He straightened up. "Hey! We just finished the upgrade, now all we have to do is test and fine-tune it."

"Great!"

"How's Sophie?" Phoenix jumped down from Fuzzy's cockpit and walked over.

Willow grinned. "She's going to be just fine. She's practicing with Daisy now."

"'Daisy'?"

"Oh, that's her Gorhecks."

"And I thought 'Fuzzy' was bad!" Dr. D marveled, but Willow and Phoenix ignored him; they were too busy gazing adoringly at each other now that they had been reunited after their brief separation. Dr. D looked from one to the other in wonderment, his impressively formidable mind simply incapable of understanding the dynamic at work here. He cleared his throat. "We should probably run those tests now, young man. It's getting late, and we don't have a lot of time left. There's a lot riding on this installation working tomorrow, and keep in mind, I've never actually had the chance to test out my device's capabilities. It's all been workable only in theory so far."

Willow winked at him. "I trust your smarts."

The three worked for hours, though in truth it was mostly Phoenix and Dr. D. Willow's mechanical knowledge of Zoids, though nearly endless nowadays compared to what it had been even a couple of years prior, was still limited. She stood at the far end of the storage facility, the windows beside her black with the deepening of the night, and reported back what she saw as Phoenix attempted various illusions. Fuzzy's large crimson form blinked in and out of invisibility, shifted position, and multiplied. "This is an amazing invention, Doc!" Phoenix exclaimed, a delighted laugh bubbling up out of him as he climbed out of Fuzzy's cockpit some time later for a break. "You say people don't appreciate your creations? Are they quite daft?"

"No one ever appreciates a mad scientist!" Dr. D complained.

"Mad? More like brilliant!"

"I have to agree," Willow said as she wandered back over, yawning widely despite her keen interest in the proceedings. She'd departed from the Wind Colony very early that morning, and it had been quite a busy day, to say the least.

"Are we boring you, darling?" Phoenix teased. "Maybe you want to head back to the inn and I'll meet you there in a bit? I just want to get these maneuvers burned into my muscle memory and then I think we'll be all set for the night, right Doc?"

But Dr. D was barely listening. "You two are sharing a room?!" he exclaimed. "Willow, are you even aware of the degree to which this young man -"

"Go on and get a little shut eye," Phoenix swiftly interrupted, turning to Willow. "I'll be back soon."

"Promise?"

"Promise." He gave her a reassuring - and adorable - smile.

Willow smiled back, nodding blearily. "Okay. Good night, Dr. D. We'll see you bright and early." Flashlight in hand, she shuffled off to the doors across the room and out into the night. Phoenix and Dr. D wordlessly watched her go, then the latter turned irritatedly to his companion.

"Do you truly grasp just how frustrating this is to watch?!" he groused.

Phoenix laughed loudly and climbed back into Fuzzy's cockpit. "Come on, then, Doc." He spun his finger in the air. "Once more from the top!"


	9. ZAC 2063: Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

Willow traipsed wearily down Athraigh's market street. Without Phoenix's flashlight she would have been utterly lost; the heavy clouds above had, if anything, grown denser still, and completely blotted out the moons' and stars' illumination.

The streetscape was eerie. Sourceless sounds, of stall tents flapping, or perhaps detritus being thrown about in the rising wind, met her ears, and though her flashlight's beam danced frantically this way and that, nothing was moving that she could see. Her skin crawled, and she was glad to arrive at the relative sanctuary of the inn.

She lit the candle Dr. D had given them earlier, and hurried up the stairs to the room she and Phoenix had chosen. All of his sarcastic jests about how it was fit for a princess such as herself aside, it was a right comfortable space, with double beds flanking either side of the doorway, a large desk, two comfortable-looking chairs, and beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows that afforded an excellent view of the main street both south to the market and north to the desert.

Willow set the candle down on a bedside table. Its warm, comforting light brought to mind her beloved lamp back at her Fort Zephyr cottage, and a pang of homesickness sliced through her insides. How very strange to feel nostalgia for that place, site of so many traumas and bad dreams; wasn't the life she lived now with Dan in the Wind Colony what she had been longing for all that time?

She sighed and blew the candle out. It wouldn't do to waste precious supplies, and these ruminations would not lead her anywhere productive. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, the windows seemed to brighten somewhat: so a bit of moonslight was able to fight its way through the clouds, after all. Distant lightning flashed out in the desert to the west, and Willow hoped that Phoenix would come back soon, so as not to get caught out in the approaching storm.

She lay down, staring at the ceiling. Though her body was exhausted, her mind was reeling: thoughts of Zeke and Phoenix and Sophie, books and empty streets and desert illusions and young men with hateful gleams in their eyes went whirling through her head. Were her foolish ideals going to deprive Heinrich of his only family, and Dan of the woman he loved?

She saw Phoenix's arresting eyes and beautiful smile in her mind just then, and remembered the way he had looked at her, with joy and affection, not just once, but countless times since they had first met. There was nothing left to do, she realized, but to trust in the treasured friendship and bond that they both shared, and hope that it would be enough.

The wind outside was picking up; the usual soft laments to which her ears were so accustomed had been replaced by louder whistles and moans. She sighed and sat back up. Tired though she was, sleep would not be coming for some time, especially now that she was worrying about Phoenix. The building he and Dr. D were working in was not especially far away, but in this type of weather, the trip back could still be dangerous.

She needed to take her mind off of her anxieties for awhile. On the table across the room, the pile of library books beckoned. So who was this Aer, anyway, this "founding mother" of the Wind Colony? She probably had an interesting story to tell, and Willow felt nearly as curious about her as Leon was.

Willow retrieved Aer's diary, lit the candle again, bunched up a few pillows behind her head, and settled back into bed to read.

 _ZAC 1897, Day 192  
_ _Today is my birthday, and Colin, little scamp that he is, saved up enough to buy me this handsome diary. The child is a treasure. He is looking at me even now from across the room with an expression of sheer delight upon his face because I am already making use of his gift. Momma gave me a lovely pendant, which I have already put on - it catches the candlelight so beautifully - and Poppa_

A wide slash of ink ominously concluded the entry. Intrigued, Willow read on.

 _ZAC 1897, Day 196  
_ _Raiders from rival tribe attacked village night of my birthday. Momma, Poppa, Colin all dead. I barely escaped with my life. If I hadn't been writing at the moment of the attack, this diary would have been left behind in the chaos.  
_ _Hiding in Forest of Dreams for now. Four days' travel and can still see the distant smoke rising from what was once my home.  
_ _Will never forget the screams and bloodshed. The dead eyes. Cannot escape these visions even in sleep.  
_ _Can do naught but move on, but where can I go? There is nothing left._

 _ZAC 1897, Day 205  
_ _I write this entry from on board the_ Kathy's Song _. I had to pawn the beautiful pendant Momma gave me in order to secure passage, for I was destitute otherwise; the only other belongings I had with me were this diary and the clothes on my back.  
_ _We are at sea two days now and Delpoi's familiar shores are long gone. My shipmates are a pathetic lot - many other refugees like me.  
_ _We sail for the eastern coast of Europa. I hear it is a wild and untamed place. I am terrified of what will await me there, but remaining in Delpoi was a death sentence. Endless carnage and warfare. There is truly nowhere safe left if even a sleepy little village like mine was attacked. Where else could I go?  
_ _The Deldaros is beautiful today, but its grey depths bring me no comfort. I have never felt so profoundly hopeless. I never thought I would have to forge on in this world alone._

 _ZAC 1897, Day 216  
_ _I am convinced the sea is endless. I find myself staring out to the horizon for hours on end as if in a trance. I can't believe I will never hold sweet Colin in my arms again. Why do I see only his bloodied, limp body in my mind instead of the silly and energetic boy he was for all but the last few minutes of his life?  
_ _How is it possible that all of them and everything I've ever known has just...vanished?  
_ _How can one person endure this much pain?  
_ _The sea is calling to me, and I don't know how much longer I will be able to resist its icy entreaties. All hope is gone._

"No, it's not," Willow told the book, as if, somewhere in the distant past, Aer would be able to hear her. "I know it seems like it is, but it's not." She scrubbed a tear from her cheek. It was impossible not to see the mangled bodies after the _Globally_ 's crash in her mind's eye, not to feel the cold desert wind raking through her hair as she labored with frigid hands to bury the only people she had ever known.

Aer's words could so easily have been her own.

 _ZAC 1897, Day 219  
_ _This morning I looked over the side of the ship into the restless waves and steeled my nerves. I wouldn't even have to drown; the cold would take me first.  
_ _And then I chanced to look up. A refugee woman and her little boy were watching me from a ways down the deck. The boy's tragic eyes looked so much like Colin's it was as if Colin himself were standing there. I couldn't do it.  
_ _I know he misses me, but I don't think he would want me to join him and Momma and Poppa just yet. So as hard as this is, I can't let him down._

"You won't," Willow murmured. Her eyelids were growing heavy. "You're going to survive, you're going to thrive, you're going to found a colony and make a home for yourself and do great things. Don't give up. Hold on."

Bolts of lightning dancing through the clouds out in the desert were visible through the massive windowpanes. The storm was drawing closer.

-.-.-.-

A crack of thunder so loud it sounded as though the very planet were breaking apart jolted Willow awake some time later. She hadn't even realized she'd fallen asleep, but the candle on the table beside her had already burned out. Aer's diary was open on her chest.

"Hey there, princess," came a voice suddenly from across the room just as she was sitting up.

Willow nearly jumped out of her skin and the diary fell to the floor. "Phoenix!" she shrieked, recognizing his dim form in the darkness. "Heavens, you gave me such a fright! I didn't even hear you come in."

"Well, typically when around a sleeping person, one attempts to be qui -" Phoenix began, but he was cut off by a pillow being thrown at him. He caught it easily, chuckling. "Right then, I'll come crashing in like a rampaging Dark Horn next time you're trying to rest. Duly noted."

Willow stuck her tongue out at him - although in the dark this was probably a fruitless exercise - then stretched, yawning. "I don't even know how long I was out for. I couldn't sleep, so I started reading." She pointed to the diary on the floor and picked it up. "I could have written this," she said thoughtfully, running her fingers over the embossed title. "Aer and I have gone through a lot of the same things."

"Yeah?" Phoenix prompted, kicking off his boots and pulling off his jacket as he prepared for bed.

"I'm starting to realize, actually, that my experiences are not quite as unique on this planet as I'd first imagined."

"Tell me." Phoenix was now perched on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees, relaxed. She could just make out the sun marking over his right eyebrow in the pale light.

"Losses, I guess, are universal. I know, for example, that back on Earth, there was - maybe still is - warfare all over the planet. Mass atrocities, nuclear fallout, and countless natural disasters caused by humans. We were suffering terribly, which is why the Incognitus expeditions were launched. But Zi has been through its own share of disasters, too. I don't think I've met a single Zoidian who hasn't lost loved ones in the cataclysm." Phoenix nodded. "And back in Aer's time, there was endless war and destruction, too, it seems. Enough to force her to have to leave everything, even her continent, behind."

"Your stubbornness about saving Athraigh is making a lot more sense to me now."

"Yeah. It's not just because I'm an idealist, you know? If I can stop the history of Earth or Zi from repeating itself, even if it's only in one little town, then I have to try. I was the only survivor of the crash, and the responsibility I feel because of that weighs really heavily on me sometimes." Another crack of thunder rattled the inn and Willow stood and walked over to the windows, gazing beyond them meditatively. "I don't want my life to have been spared for nothing." Outside, the clouds were blazing with the dance of lightning, setting the town alight then plunging it immediately back into shadow.

She felt the floor shift slightly from his approach and was therefore not startled when Phoenix joined her at the windows, standing behind her and wrapping his arms around her. "It wasn't for nothing, or I wouldn't still be here," he told her softly, resting his chin on the top of her head. She raised one hand up to hold his freckled forearm. His skin felt warm beneath her fingers and against her collarbone. "But remember that you're still only one person. And there's only so much one person can do. Nobody wants to see you throwing your precious life away on battles that can't be won. You're not alone like you were after the crash. You have people to live for now."

"And Zoids," she said, her thoughts reaching to a white Command Wolf a few buildings away, standing resolute in the shrieking wind.

"And Zoids," he agreed.

She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, but nevertheless had to ask. "Do you - do you think we're going to be okay tomorrow?"

He did not reply at first, just pulled her more tightly against him. She lowered her head to rest her chin on his forearm. There was so much warmth and life in him. Why did this suddenly feel like a farewell?

Finally, he said, "I don't know, Willow. But I'm going to do the best I can, because despite all that I've lost, there's still so much that I treasure in this world, and that's what I'll be fighting for." He was obviously speaking of Heinrich, but when he kissed the top of her head, she knew that she was a part of that statement, too.

"Me too," she whispered. The wind was howling, but it sounded not so much angry as lonely. The clouds pressed heavily downward on the small town, though no rain fell.

"What do you think, maybe it's time we got to bed?" Phoenix asked. "Going to be a big day tomorrow." He was rocking them both gently side to side, as though leading her in some silent, leisurely dance.

"We probably should." But neither of them moved; they remained at the windows for quite some time, transfixed by the storm raging outside, or perhaps by the comfort of their embrace.


	10. ZAC 2063: Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10**_

"Everything is going to be okay," Zeke said.

"Do you really think so?" Willow was strapped into her pilot's seat and ready to start the battle.

"Yes. It's because I trust you that I know you're going to guide me well. And it's because I know you trust me that I'm going to do the best I can."

"You're right. We're a team."

"Always were, always will be," Zeke replied. Willow thought that her Zoid might be even better at bolstering the confidence of others than she herself was. "We'll be fine, Willow. Willow? Willow?"

"What is it?" she murmured. "I'm right here; talk to me."

"I _am_ talking to you! Come on, it's time to get up, sleepyhead."

Willow's eyes shot open and immediately registered Phoenix's face. He was seated on the side of her bed and nudging her shoulder gently. The faintest of light was filtering in through the windows. "What time is it?" she asked groggily, trying to clear her mind of the cobwebs of sleep. So Zeke hadn't been speaking to her, after all. That was disappointing. What was not disappointing, however, was that Phoenix was currently shirtless. That carved torso was enough to wake any girl up!

"Early o'clock," he told her, so focused on more pressing matters that for once he didn't notice a female ogling him. "Come on, I've got breakfast ready and then we should meet up with Sophie and Dr. D to go over last-minute details."

"In a minute." Willow stretched out luxuriantly and yawned, then squealed when Phoenix poked her ticklishly in the ribs. "Okay, okay!"

From downstairs, he had scrounged up some juice, bread that was only slightly stale, butter, and fruit, and had laid it out on the desk. "Don't suppose I've got time for a quick bath?" Willow ventured, eyeing the selection and trying to decide what to eat.

"Nope."

"Figured you'd say that." She grabbed an apple and began munching, then turned her back to him so she could swap into the change of clothes she'd brought along.

Phoenix, meanwhile, was putting back on the clothes he'd worn the day prior. "My apologies for the odor," he remarked after a few moments, "but let's be honest with each other: you've been around me when I was a lot worse."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she deadpanned, now fully dressed and turning to face him. "You always smell fresh as a meadow to me."

He yanked an undershirt over his head and grinned at her. "I appreciate the well-intentioned yet blatant lie." His fiery red hair was adorably messy. "You all set, then?"

"Just about. But first…" She swiftly crossed the space between them, gave him the tightest hug she could muster, then let go and mussed his hair just a little bit more with her fingers. "Okay. _Now_ I'm ready."

He laughed, pulling on his jacket and gesturing towards the door. "Off we go then, my Earth princess. Adventure and glory await!"

They exited the room holding hands, because in spite of the conversational levity, both were feeling more than a little bit frightened, and there was some small comfort to be found in wordlessly acknowledging this.

-.-.-.-

"Are you sure this is going to work, Dr. D?" Sophie's voice asked in a crackle over the cockpit communications channel. The video feed of her anxious face, though stable, was not employing especially good clarity at the moment. Willow assumed this was because Daisy and her onboard electronics systems were getting on in years.

"Of course I'm not sure; how many times do I have to tell you? This is highly experimental technology, at best!"

Dawn was just breaking and Willow would have had great difficulty remaining awake and alert were it not for the high stakes. She had Zeke standing sentinel just beyond the south end of Athraigh's market street, as apparently this was the direction from which all previous Sandburner visits had originated. On her right flank, but back somewhat so as to be closer to the relative safety of the town, were Sophie and Daisy. Phoenix and Fuzzy were hidden nearby, off to Willow's left. Dr. D had utilized whatever technology he could find in the vacated buildings to set up a makeshift command center at the bank some ways up the street, where he could keep in radio contact with the three pilots, and monitor the unfolding situation via radar.

Willow took this moment of Sophie's and Dr. D's nervous bickering to open up a private video feed with Phoenix. "How're you feeling?" she asked. "You ready?"

His face was drawn, and there were the hints of bags under his eyes from how little sleep he'd gotten. Nevertheless, he managed to shoot her a radiant smile, though whether or not it was genuine was questionable. "We're all set over here. I can tell Fuzzy's impatient to get on with it." A small purring rumble in the background underscored his statement.

"Zeke is, too." She would have added more, but Sophie cut her off suddenly.

"Daisy's picking up extensive Zoid-to-Zoid radio and satellite communications about five miles away. They're coming."

"How did Daisy detect them from so far away?" Willow asked in wonderment, at the same time Phoenix barked, "Where from?"

"South. Just as we thought," Sophie replied, while Dr. D added as an aside to Willow, "I took the liberty of upgrading her Gorhecks' electronic warfare and espionage capabilities this morning, naturally!" He burst into a flurry of merry cackles.

"Naturally," Willow echoed, dazed, wondering when precisely the scientist had even had an opportunity to sleep, but then she shook her head and rededicated her focus to the task at hand. Any second now, and the Sandburners would be within Zeke's radar range. She didn't have long to wait before a cacophony of warning beeps invaded the cabin. She squinted down at one of the monitors for a better look. "Seventeen!" she gasped.

"One Command Wolf, six Godoses, nine Guysaks, one Pteras!" Sophie read off to the group. "Wolf out in front. That's typically been the leader."

"Not as many as I'd thought, given their reputation and all the saber-rattling," Phoenix mused.

"What were you expecting? A whole battalion?" Willow retorted shrilly. She herself thought seventeen enemy Zoids was an obscenely high number, but opted not to voice this, lest she hurt the others' morale.

"Well...yeah," Phoenix replied. "Either they weren't expecting any form of resistance whatsoever, or the actual overall size of their group isn't quite as impressive as they'd like for us to believe."

Willow set her jaw and settled further into her seat. Seventeen was still plenty to reckon with, she thought glumly, especially considering the fact that this meant they were outnumbered nearly six to one. "Get ready, pal," she murmured to her Zoid. "We may be in for a pretty bumpy ride, here." Zeke snarled and lowered his head.

The Sandburners appeared over the horizon momentarily, marching in ominous formation, a gleaming black Command Wolf in the lead and the Pteras hovering above them all like a stormcloud. Willow flexed her fingers on the steering column's handles and silently watched them approach. Sophie had been very particular that were the expected fight to break out, it would be the Sandburners who had initiated it. She still planned to try to reason with them, if possible.

Willow couldn't tell if it was just her imagination, or if the enemy Zoids were actually swaggering a bit. There was an arrogance to their motions that said that this had all been done before, and would all be done again, and it was then that it dawned on her that they hadn't bothered to come from an unexpected direction, or surround Athraigh, or otherwise make any strategically beneficial maneuver whatsoever. They weren't at all afraid, and they were flaunting that fact. Was this simply a show meant to unnerve and demoralize the enemy, or were they actually that dangerously confident in their abilities?

As they drew closer, her sharp eyes began looking them all over one by one, noting movements, observing individual characteristics, seeking a chink in the armor. The shining pincers on the Guysaks gave her a momentary shudder of remembrance, but Zeke was steady beneath her. Though energized for a fight, he was calm and unwavering. She took a deep breath, drawing strength from his unshakeable solidity.

"What have we here?" An ugly voice speaking in Helic inundated her cabin and a video feed popped up from the enemy Command Wolf. A profoundly unattractive man in his thirties filled up the video frame, and Willow involuntarily recoiled from the pockmarked face, crooked nose, and malicious eyes. "Miss Hayes, did you hire a protector? Is one pathetic Command Wolf all your tight fists could manage for the defense of an entire town?"

Zeke snarled.

Willow was indescribably proud of the strong, clear voice with which Sophie responded: "Leave now, Ruathar. We have no quarrel with you and wish to live in peace."

Ruathar did not need to verbally express his contempt for such a statement; his bark of derisive laughter did it for him. "You had your chance to live in peace, and foolishly threw it away in the name of greed. You will pay dearly for your folly. Will those few extra coins jingling in your pockets be a comfort to you when your town is reduced to ashes?"

Willow was watching Sophie on one of the video windows. Her violet eyes were flashing, cold and determined. Willow grinned. She was glad she hadn't been wrong in surmising the existence of that spine of steel.

"Leave us," Sophie stated again forcefully. "We do not want to fight."

Ruathar smirked. "Then you should have thought of that when we came to collect your dues." He turned to his side. "You boys ready? You can take whatever you find if you like, but I want this place reduced to rubble before an hour has passed."

A chorus of "Roger!" and "Copy!" from the assembled Zoids filled the cabin. Willow idly slid her thumb up and down the steering column handle, her palms already sweating. "Steady," she told Zeke, though really, she was mostly saying this for her own benefit. "Steady." Zeke made a low rumbling sound in his throat that only she could hear, acknowledging. _We're in this together_ , he seemed to be telling her. "Always," she murmured back to him.

"Phoenix, are you ready?" Sophie asked over the private channel.

He was nodding. "Yeah, we're all set over here. But I'm going to need at least two or three times as many as you practiced."

"But -" Sophie protested, though Dr. D cut her off immediately.

"Thirty? Forty-five?! Are you insane, young man?!" he shouted. "The illusion unit is only a prototype! It wasn't meant for that kind of workload!"

"And entire towns weren't meant to be defended by only three Zoids!" Phoenix shot back. His voice was strained. "We don't have a choice, because there's no way the plan is going to work if we have nearly even numbers with them!"

"Phoenix is right," Willow added. "We're going to have to try. The threat of massive retaliation is the whole idea here, and that threat won't exactly be very threatening without the right numbers." She looked right into Sophie's frightened eyes in the video feed. "Remember what we talked about. Daisy's ready to help you, so do your best!"

Sophie nodded grimly. "Okay." She took a deep breath. The enemy Zoids were lining up, preparing an assault. "Go, Phoenix!" She began mashing unseen buttons on her console. "Deploying thirty copies!"

"I hope this works..." Dr. D moaned despondently over the radio.

Willow gazed around her in wonder as Helcats began appearing out of alleyways, from behind buildings, on rooftops. If she hadn't known precisely where Fuzzy had ensconced herself, she wouldn't have been able to tell which was the one being piloted. Fuzzy emerged from her hiding place along with the others, unleashed a shrieking growl, then melted into her surroundings, expertly disguising her disappearance in the sheer numbers of fellow Helcats swarming the street. She reappeared almost immediately near Daisy, letting loose with another battle cry, then vanished again, and so on, until Willow was seemingly surrounded by snarling Helcats. A disbelieving laugh escaped her. Phoenix's flawless piloting was breathtaking to behold.

Meanwhile, there was chaos in the enemy ranks, as frenzied shouts were heard.

"What - what's going on?"

"They have a whole army!"

"We can't fight that!"

"This wasn't part of the contract, Ruathar! You said they'd be pushovers!" A Guysak broke ranks and fled.

"Give me more, Sophie!" Phoenix begged. "We need overwhelming numbers!"

"Deploying fifteen more," Sophie replied immediately. More Helcats materialized around Zeke and Daisy, seemingly from nowhere.

Another Guysak backed out of formation and bolted.

"Cowards!" Ruathar screamed viciously. "Don't you dare run! We can take them!" But his voice tremored a bit. He was unnerved!

A Helcat beside Zeke suddenly wavered slightly. It was only a momentary visual twitch, but Ruathar's Command Wolf was already turned alertly in Willow's direction, and it was enough. "The copies are starting to fail!" she yelled, aghast. "Ruathar saw!"

"Leave it to me!" came Sophie's confident reply. She hit a switch to her left. "Deploy jamming array!" Daisy roared, lowering her head, and the purple crystal radar fins on her back began to glow as electricity sparked between them.

"They're fakes!" Ruathar bellowed, furious to have been tricked. "Find the real one and destroy it!"

But the enemy Zoids didn't attack. In fact, many of them were still shrinking away from the seemingly impenetrable wall of Helcats opposite them. A Godos turned and lumbered off as fast as its awkward legs could carry it. Fourteen left.

"What's going on?" Willow gasped. "What did you do?"

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!" Phoenix panted. He was still darting Fuzzy in and out of the dozens of illusory Helcats.

Dr. D's chortles surrounded Willow. "The Gorhecks was designed for electronic warfare, you know! Hit a switch and - zap! Enemy communications jammed!" He cackled with delight.

"You mean - they can't talk to each other anymore?!"

"Quite right, young lady!" Dr. D was actually guffawing now, immensely pleased with his own handiwork.

Ruathar himself was apparently just beginning to realize what had happened, for his enraged screams now more closely resembled questions than exclamations. "Pteras! I need a bombardment, now! Pteras? Come in! Can you hear me? Answer!"

But in spite of the Sandburners' woes, Willow, Phoenix, Sophie, and Dr. D could still hear all of them. The enemy pilots were quite unable to comprehend what was happening, between the appearance of such an unexpectedly sizeable resistance and the sudden and complete failure of their ability to communicate with one another.

"What's happening?!"

"Boss? Boss?"

"What should we do?"

"Can't anyone hear me?"

The Sandburner pilots made no attempt to disguise their fear and confusion now; one after another, the Zoids fled: the Guysaks, the Godoses.

"Guys, I'm having a hard time with Fuzz; she's starting to overheat from the load," Phoenix called. "I don't know how much longer we're going to be able to hold on. We need to wrap this up!"

"Eject the illusion unit!" Dr. D demanded over the radio. "Your command system may freeze if you don't!"

"Can't do that - as long as I can keep it going, we've got safety in numbers. Come _on_ , Fuzz! Keep it together!" The Helcat's laboring growls could be heard over the communications channel.

"We won't have safety in numbers for long if you fry your circuits! Eject it now!"

"Boss! Boss, if you can hear me, I'm going to try to take out the wolf!" called the Pteras pilot. A series of shrill beeps in the cockpit indicating target lock nearly split Willow's eardrums an instant before he shot off a couple of missiles. Quick as lightning, without time for conscious thought, she aimed Zeke's cannons and fired, blasting the projectiles out of the sky.

The Pteras simply hovered there for a moment, completely still, its pilot in shock. But he seemed to gather himself, for Willow soon heard him mutter, "Like to see you try that again."

However, she didn't need to, because an incredible fusillade of anti-aircraft missiles suddenly launched from Willow's right. The cluster hit their target directly, causing a massive explosion, and seconds later the Pteras' dead weight crashed to the ground with the force of a collapsing building. Willow blinked, then looked over. Two pods extending from Daisy's flanks were smoking.

"Nice one, Sophie!" came Phoenix's voice.

Sophie shrugged and grinned. "I said I wasn't going to fire the first shot. Didn't say anything about not answering it."

Ruathar's Command Wolf was now all that remained of that initial swaggering force. "Unlike those rats - whom I will punish later for their cowardice - I am not afraid of you," he hissed, the words low and cold. "It's only a matter of time before I find out which one is the real one." And with that, he began firing at the Helcats, one by one. Their images shook from the blasts, and several went out and did not return.

Willow was shocked by the black Command Wolf's power. The weapon on its back was not the Helic standard military issue 50-millimeter double-barreled beam cannon with which Zeke was equipped, but something else entirely. How had she not noticed this until now? It was slow to fire, but when a shot connected, it left a massive hole in the ground. "What is that weapon?" she cried. "How is he so strong?"

"That - that's the cannon from a Heldigunner," Phoenix breathed, awestruck.

"A what?"

"A Zoid that got wiped out in the cataclysm. That's its signature weapon!"

"It has a condensing long range assault beam?" Dr. D yelped. "Be _very_ careful! The Heldigunner had extremely powerful weaponry, three cannons in one unit, and if this Command Wolf is equipped similarly, it can smash through your armor in one hit!"

"Then what do we do?" Sophie asked. "We don't have any shields!"

Willow saw the illusory Helcats getting fired through one by one, and though Phoenix was wisely remaining invisible for now, she and Sophie were sitting ducks. Not to mention, at the rate Ruathar was going, he wouldn't need his minions' help to level Athraigh. Already the buildings nearest to the desert battle bore gaping holes and shrapnel scars. What to do?

That was when the remaining Helcats surrounding her flickered once and then vanished entirely.

"Aha!" Ruathar cried triumphantly. "Now where is the last little kitty hiding? Or should I destroy its friends first?" He pivoted his weapon slightly to take aim at Zeke.

"The Heldigunner's cannons were used only when at long range!" Dr. D told them, oblivious to the illusion unit's failure. He had no way of viewing the battlefield without sticking his head out a nearby window and witnessing it for himself. "Though powerful, they have a poor rate of fire!"

Willow had already been noticing the weapon's sluggishness, as well as the fact that the enemy Command Wolf's movements seemed a bit off-balance. Such a famously maneuverable Zoid was surely slowed down somewhat by the massive weapon installed on its back. She set her nerves. "Okay! We're going to get in close, then! Ready, Zeke?"

Zeke replied with a bloodthirsty roar.

"I'm coming, too!" Phoenix cut in. "Sophie, give us support fire when you can get a clean shot!"

"O - okay! We'll try!"

"Phoenix, don't!" Willow protested. "I won't be able to fight with Fuzzy underfoot!"

"I'm not letting you do this alone, Willow. Never again." Phoenix's luminous green eyes in the video feed were fierce. "Don't worry - this is exactly what Fuzz and I were trained for. We'll be able to stay out of your way. Forget about us and just take care of him!"

She pushed a lock of hair distractedly over her shoulder. "Okay." She had no choice but to trust in her friend. That it had come down to this, that she and Phoenix would be struggling against their adversary in close combat, suddenly seemed completely inevitable. She swallowed, then thrust the steering column forward, burying one of the foot pedals. "Do it, Zeke!"

Zeke bayed lustily and charged.

"Let's go, Fuzz!" came Phoenix's voice an instant later. "Back them up and take him down!"

"He's getting ready to fire at you, Willow!" Sophie screamed. Willow saw the brief gathering of energy at the barrels' tips, mentally gauged the trajectory, and ducked Zeke aside at the last possible second. The moment the three beams shot harmlessly by, shaking the ground behind her, she returned to their initial path: straight towards Ruathar.

His next shot had no hope of connecting; Zeke was much too fast. Circling sideways a short distance so as to be perpendicular to the enemy, Zeke jumped high, both forefeet coming down hard on the wolf's back to push it to its knees, then, pivoting his hindquarters in mid-air, he spun completely around, landing on the wolf's far side facing it. Willow fired a point-blank shot into the enemy Zoid's midsection, then immediately sprang away for a fresh angle of attack just as Fuzzy reappeared at the enemy's near side and lashed out with slashing claws before vanishing again.

Ruathar spun and fired off another shot from his cannons, but it was nearly blind; one of his foes wasn't even visible, and the other was moving far too quickly. Zeke was already positioned behind him, in fact. Zeke came in close and rotated in place so rapidly that his outstretched tail whipped the black wolf's hind legs right out from under it. It cried out in surprise, and would have gotten back up, except at that moment Fuzzy reappeared to its right a split second before bodily hurling herself into its front shoulder, knocking it clean over. She bounded out of range and dematerialized again just as quickly as she'd arrived, leaving a clean shot for Zeke, who galloped in and struck out at the cannons with his strike claws before darting in front of the wolf to face it just as it was clambering back to its feet.

"What - what on Zi is happening?" a slackjawed Sophie queried of no one in particular. She hadn't yet fired a single shot. She hadn't needed to.

Now Zeke lunged forward, head down, and shoved his muzzle under the Command Wolf's chest. "Go!" Willow shouted. Zeke reared upward with all of the strength he possessed, knocking the enemy Zoid back onto its hind legs, where it teetered momentarily, off-balance, as Ruathar struggled to shift its weight forward so that it could land safely back on all fours.

But Zeke was already in motion again; he sank to the ground immediately and crouched low. Fuzzy then reappeared behind him, leaping in a graceful arc right over his prone form with a triumphant shriek, utilizing the cleared path to the enemy to smash her head into its exposed stomach with everything she had. The black Command Wolf, unable to maintain any semblance of balance after such a blow, toppled backwards and tumbled onto its side.

Before Ruathar knew what was happening, there was a white Command Wolf standing calmly over him with its front paw pressed firmly to his Zoid's throat, while the Helcat was crouched nearby, its chest-mounted laser machine guns aimed directly at the cockpit. Fuzzy growled, her tail switching predatorily back and forth.

"P-p-please don't shoot," Ruathar stammered in terror, opening the canopy glass of his fallen Zoid and putting his hands up. "I surrender!"

"And why shouldn't I kill you in cold blood?" Phoenix inquired of him in disconcertingly serene fashion, casually caressing the trigger buttons with his fingertips. "You were prepared to do the same to us."

"Please, don't shoot him," Sophie said. Daisy lumbered over to join them. "He'll stand trial for his crimes and will be punished, I assure you. It's the way of our town."

Phoenix sighed. "If you insist," he said lazily. "And if he's smart, I'm sure he'll be most forthcoming about his gang's activities and the whereabouts of its other members." Fuzzy shifted position slightly, her weapons still aimed squarely at Ruathar, and his eyes widened. He nodded, swallowing hard.

Sophie exited Daisy's cockpit and handcuffed a considerably meeker Ruathar just as Dr. D came running from up the street. "What on Zi happened over here?!" Willow and Phoenix were exiting their Zoids as well, and he turned to them. "I watched as much as I could! You made it all look so easy!"

Willow and Phoenix locked eyes for only an instant before she rushed into his now outstretched arms. She was crying a little bit, though the tears streaming down her cheeks were simply from relief that, at last, the fear had dissipated and everything was all over. Phoenix held her to him and stroked her hair comfortingly, although, she noticed, his hands were trembling.

"Are you okay?" she said softly, so that only he could hear.

He nodded lightly, his chin resting on top of her head. "Are you?"

"I'm fine. I'm just so, _so_ glad everyone's alright." She stepped back from their embrace, looking up at him with wide, wet eyes. "I - I honestly had no idea you could fight like that. It was incredible."

"You were pretty great, yourself," he deflected, reddening. "You've obviously continued your training since I last saw you."

She smiled bashfully. "Dan's been helping me a little," she admitted. "But you! I've never seen anything like it. It was like...you knew exactly what Zeke and I were going to do next."

Phoenix grinned. "Believe it or not, that was actually the specific fighting style I specialized in back when I was in the military. A select group of us learned to pilot Helcats as close combat support, which meant staying out of the way of but working in concert with the main offense, and using optical stealth for complementary surgical strikes." Willow looked awed, so he continued, "What was amazing to me, though, was that it felt like you and Zeke had received the companion training. You sensed what Fuzz and I were about to do and then set us up perfectly, every time. I couldn't have asked for a better ally."

Willow blushed at these compliments and reflected on the fight, which seemed to have gone on for days but in actuality had concluded within a few minutes, at most. In retrospect, she realized there was no point at which she had had to consciously think of how to work effectively with Phoenix and Fuzzy; her cooperation with him, the violent and graceful ballet of their Zoids on reciprocal attack, had simply come naturally.

"Maybe," Dr. D said loudly, inviting himself into the conversation, "the reason you two were able to fight together so well was because your thought processes were in concert, enabling you to fight as if you were one pilot. And the reason you were able to do _that_ was probably because -"

"- we're dear friends," Phoenix interrupted even more loudly, shoving Dr. D out of the way. "Isn't that right? Pal?" he asked Willow, swinging an arm around her shoulders and giving her a squeeze.

She laughed that musical laugh of hers. "Of course," she replied. "Friends to the end."

"Forever and ever," Phoenix agreed solemnly.

Sophie, standing nearby with a grouchy-looking Ruathar, giggled; Dr. D simply shook his head and sighed.


	11. ZAC 2063: Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11**_

"Are you sure I can't convince you to stay a bit longer?" Sophie asked, the slanting late-afternoon sunlight causing her to squint at the pair standing before her. "I'm sure the citizens of Athraigh would welcome the opportunity to thank you personally for what you've done."

Phoenix smiled bashfully and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'd love to meet them all, honestly, but...I should probably get back home. My brother's waiting for me."

"You also need a bath," Willow pointed out with a grin. Phoenix elbowed her affectionately.

"And you?" Sophie asked Willow, turning to her.

"I also need a bath, most likely," Willow deadpanned. "But in seriousness, I should get going, too. A friend of mine back home -" She paused mid-sentence, reflecting for a moment on her unconscious use of the word "home," then continued, "he's waiting for the research materials I'll be bringing back with me." She was struck by a sudden thought. "Oh! I know I don't live here, but please Sophie, oh please, I promise I'll be back and return everything in perfect condition!"

Sophie laughed. "Our head librarian evacuated with the others, but as the only citizen currently present, not to mention Athraigh town elder, I'm quite certain I possess the authority to allow you to borrow items from our library."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!" Willow gasped happily.

"No, thank _you_." Sophie's glance included Phoenix in her words. "For everything you've done for us. I simply can't adequately convey the depth of my gratitude. I only wish you could stay until our residents return and receive the kind of heroes' recognition you both deserve."

Dr. D, who had ceded the floor to Sophie until now, stepped forward. "It's been a pleasure to work with you both," he said, eyeing Willow and Phoenix. "Especially you, young man. I suppose it just goes to show...you never really know whom your next teacher will be." Phoenix grinned appreciatively at the compliment, then realized with horror that Dr. D wasn't yet done. "And I do hope you'll eventually decide, before it's too late," he continued, "to fight for what you most lo -"

"Doc!" Willow exclaimed suddenly, rudely interrupting him as she thought of something. "You never told us your name!" Her earnest brown eyes were pleading. "Please? Since we saved the library and you'll probably have at least another day of silence there before everyone starts coming back?"

Dr. D unleashed a burst of cackling laughter that handily eclipsed all previous ones the assembled group had yet heard. "I suppose you've earned it, young lady!" His face became stern. "But you must promise not to tell a soul." Willow nodded her assent eagerly, and he leaned in close to whisper the word into her ear.

Her eyes enlarged into saucers. "Duke?!" she exclaimed. "Are you serious?" She then clapped both hands over her mouth. "Um..."

Dr. D stared hard at Phoenix and Sophie. "I hope you two will do a better job of keeping my secret than this one here."

"My lips are sealed," Phoenix replied solemnly, though Sophie simply laughed.

"Will you be leaving me too, Dr. Duke?" she asked with a wink.

Dr. D rolled his eyes skyward. "Yes, eventually, but this blabbermouth makes a good point. It will be deliciously quiet in your library until your citizens begin to return, so I hope you don't mind if I stay on a bit yet to continue with my work."

"Of course not! Take all the time you need."

"You should bring your inventions to the government," Willow suggested. "They would be crazy if they didn't recognize your level of genius. Especially if you demonstrated the capabilities of something like your illusion unit!"

"You know, perhaps I will," Dr. D agreed, growing thoughtful. "I do have some friends in very high places up in New Helic City..."

At the northern end of the market street, Zeke, who was standing beside Fuzzy, stirred. Willow looked over at her lupine companion, then turned back to Sophie and Dr. D and smiled. "We'll be back soon," she said.

"Promise?" Sophie said, holding out her hand.

"Promise." Willow took Sophie's hand and shook it, smiling into the young woman's heart-shaped face, then leaned forward conspiratorially. "By the way, Daisy told me that she's really, really proud of you," she whispered. They locked eyes. "Athraigh is very lucky to have such a smart and talented leader." Sophie nodded, beaming.

Willow and Phoenix waved to their new friends, then set off together down the street. Around them, a handful of rooms and shops and porches, though still empty, were alight now that the town's power was back on. The festive illumination lit Willow and Phoenix's path towards their Zoids. It was amazing how different the atmosphere in Athraigh felt with the addition of a bit of light, as well as the removal of the crushing weight of fear. The two friends were silent as they passed the inn on their right, although Willow noticed Phoenix's glance slide over to it. She thought she knew what he might be thinking of. They had rested that morning and afternoon in their room, sleeping, talking, eating, reading - Willow had finished Aer's diary - and savoring one another's company in the time that they still had left. Aside from the change of scenery, it had felt so similar to past times back in Fort Zephyr that the very nearness of the memory had taken Willow's breath away. If his thinking was anything like hers, Phoenix was probably recalling it, too, wondering how their remaining hours together had slipped away so quickly.

They stopped at Zeke's and Fuzzy's feet. Willow turned to her dear friend. "I guess...I guess this is where we part ways now?" She'd intended it to be a statement, but the words had slipped from her as more of a question. Phoenix didn't say anything; he was biting his lip and looking over her shoulder into the desert, where the waning sunlight was creating sharply delineated shadows on the dunes. She studied his face, saw the pallid color of his cheeks and the sadness darkening his eyes. "Oh, stars, Phoenix," she whispered, so her voice wouldn't break. "Why is saying goodbye to you always so hard?"

"I don't want to leave you, either," he murmured, still not meeting her eyes. He kept chewing fretfully at his lower lip. But a thought seemed to come to him then, for his whole aspect brightened suddenly. He cleared his throat. "Actually," he said preliminarily, and here Willow knew something silly and likely logistically indefensible was coming, "in light of recent events, I think it would be best if I accompanied you back to the Wind Colony. You know, to ensure your safe arrival and all." He looked at her full-on now, and presented her with that irresistible grin of his.

This wasn't what she had been expecting him to say, and so her incredulous laugh escaped her in abrupt fashion. She shook her head, grinning back at him. "You realize I am in nearly the exact opposite direction as you, right?" He nodded enthusiastically. "And what of Heinrich? Isn't he expecting you home soon? Aren't you, in fact, a bit late in returning to him as it is?"

Phoenix's face clouded at mention of his brotherly obligations, but only for a moment before lighting up again with pleasure at his idea. "Now that Athraigh is connected to the world again, I'll just have a message sent to him. Nothing to worry about." Willow was eyeing him more than a little bit skeptically, and, noting this, he scratched the back of his neck. "The truth is," he added, softly, "this never does get any easier for me, either. And while I do very much want to get back home to Heinrich, the thought of leaving you in order to do that feels, at this moment, absolutely unbearable." He took both her hands in his and gazed at her, his bright eyes pleading. "Some of the way, then? Just so I don't have to face the eventuality of our parting just yet?"

Phoenix thankfully did not know it, but almost since the first moment she had met him, Willow had found she was very nearly powerless to deny him even the slightest thing he asked of her. At first she had simply been under the spell of his charismatic charm, beautiful emerald eyes, and roguish grin, but there was so much more to it now than that. It was no surprise, of course, that she cared about him, deeply, but what continued to bewilder and amaze her was just how far down those wells of affection could go.

She nodded to him. "If you're sure, then I know a nice stopping point where we could -" she began, but got no further, for he'd pulled her into a tight embrace and was nuzzling his nose and cheek against her head. Relief was practically radiating off of him in visible waves.

She sighed happily, to once more be in this familiar and comforting place, close to someone who meant the world, no, the universe to her. Someone she loved.

"One or both of us could have died today," he whispered into her hair. He exhaled, heavily, and in that exhale, she understood just how much fear he had been holding on to. "Please forgive me if that means I can't seem to let go of you just yet."

Willow didn't mind.

She did not reply, but simply breathed, and tightened her arms around him.


	12. ZAC 2063: Chapter 12

_**Chapter 12**_

They reached the small mountain chain waypoint late that evening. "I'll go on ahead and make sure we'll have the place to ourselves, then, shall I?" Phoenix asked over the cockpit video feed with a flirty wink. Willow laughed and slowed Zeke to a walk. She didn't see Fuzzy leave Zeke's side, but presumed she had. The Helcat had maintained her optical stealth for almost the entirety of the trip, more out of an abundance of caution than anything else: if any nasty encounters were going to be taking place, it was best she stay out of sight and then utilize the element of surprise for a counterattack. There were two sets of footprints being left behind in the sand as they had traveled along, of course, but, as Phoenix had explained, people often failed to notice things that they didn't expect to see.

"All clear," he called a few minutes later. When Willow and Zeke entered the familiar meadow between the two northernmost peaks, Fuzzy, quite visible now and with her cockpit open, was waiting for them. "This is quite a romantic place you've chosen for us, Willow," Phoenix remarked, looking about and taking in the wildflowers, the stream, and the mountains nudging their summits towards the stars. "Are you trying to convey something to me, here? Ought I be reading between your beautiful lines?"

"Oh, you," she sighed with exaggerated weariness as she popped the canopy glass, though she didn't bother to hide the smile that came as she said it. She stood and stretched, then looked up. "We may be able to look at the stars tonight. Just like old times." She turned to him with a questioning glance; his gaze was already lifted heavensward.

-.-.-.-

Sophie had sent them on their way with enough food to fuel at least a few weeks' worth of aimless desert wandering, and so that night after making camp, Willow and Phoenix feasted merrily together.

Time was proving as fluid as the stream's quiet currents. Dawn was many years away, yet their weeks spent in Fort Zephyr were hovering close by, near enough to touch.

There wasn't much that needed to be said; volumes were conveyed in a glance, a smile. When Willow saw Phoenix gazing towards Zeke's cockpit, she understood. She got up and held her hand out towards her friend, he took it and stood also, and, fingers entwined, they walked over to the Command Wolf.

"Can you please lift us up, Zeke?" Willow asked. "We want to look at the stars."

Zeke, naturally, obliged by lowering his head for them, and Willow and Phoenix settled themselves down on the outer ledges of the cockpit, facing each other as they usually did. Zeke sat back on his haunches and carefully stretched his neck upwards as high as he could. His great height in this position wasn't quite equal to the nearby mountain peaks', but it was more than sufficient to afford an expansive view of the numberless constellations overhead. Willow and Phoenix sat quietly, admiring the heavenly vistas.

At length, he broke the silence with a soft question: "Has their meaning changed for you, at all?"

"Mm?" She emerged from a reverie. "The stars?" He nodded. "Yes. They always have, though."

"In what way?"

"Well, for starters, on my ship, they were simply scenery passing by. Deep space didn't feel all that special to me, because it had always been the context within which I'd lived.

"And then, after the crash but still early on in my time on Zi, the stars felt like...like tormentors." Phoenix appeared confused by this statement. Willow shook her head. "I don't think I can really explain it adequately. There was a time, after Dan left me in Fort Zephyr, that I struggled. I mean, I really, really struggled. Zeke and I weren't yet friends like we are now. The desolation was absolutely crushing. I think I was...starting to head down a bad road, there, to be honest; I remember one night when it seemed like the stars were mocking me, like they were calling me back to the heavens where I belonged, even though they knew I was landbound now."

"There's still so much I don't know about you, from before we met," Phoenix said. There was a shadow of sadness in his voice. "How on Zi did you survive that kind of loneliness?"

"I don't really know." Willow shifted position slightly to take some pressure off of her left leg, where one of the console's multitudinous switches had been digging into the back of her thigh. "I wasn't really right in the head, and I feared the onset of night the way most other people fear death." She paused. "But then the bandits came one night, and the stars suddenly became friends and guides, hiding me from those who would do me harm, and everything changed after that. That night that we were out in the desert looking for Fuzzy, I told you. It seemed to me by then that the stars were safeguarding my past and my memories."

"And now that you've been on Zi for a few years, and in the Wind Colony for at least one, how do you feel about them now? When you look up at night, what do you see?" He was watching her in the dim light. "You were born up there, and lived up there for a majority of your life. Is it still home to you? A place that you've lost?"

"I'm not really sure I know where home is, anymore," Willow said quietly. She thought of Aer just then, how everything had been ripped away from that poor young woman all at once, and how, instead of buckling under the weight of the pain she had endured, she'd struggled ever onward. The remainder of her diary had related the conclusion of her voyage across the Deldaros Ocean, the wild and untamed lands she had stumbled upon in Europa's eastern seaboard, and the tiny farming settlement she had founded some distance inland in a precious desert oasis. While reading, Willow had been struck over and over by Aer's fortitude and her determination to triumph over the odds, even if that victory ultimately rested upon nothing more than sheer force of will alone.

The diary was sitting on a small storage shelf below the console, as Willow had found she hadn't been able to physically part with it even for the relatively short journey back to the Wind Colony. It had felt as though Aer, through her written words, had been speaking directly to Willow from many decades ago, trying to pass on the strength Willow would need to face what was to come, to establish a place for herself in the world, too. She looked at the slender little volume now, and was awed anew by the courage of the woman who had written it.

Phoenix noticed her glance. "Willow, why was that book so important to you that it was worth risking your life?" She looked at him. "Surely there's more to it than just trying to help a friend with his research."

Willow took the book from its perch and studied its battered cover. "This was as much a personal mission as it was an altruistic one. Yes, I wanted to help my friend with his work. But you're right, there was more to it." She ran her fingertips lightly over Aer's embossed name. "When Leon told me about what he was trying to accomplish, writing a history of the Wind Colony, he also told me something else: that every resident was a part of that history, that everyone mattered." She swallowed, setting the diary down in her lap but still gazing at it. "Leon doesn't know my past, my secrets, but he seems to have put some pieces together on his own. I hadn't known how obvious it was to others that I felt like an outsider in the Wind Colony. It's quite lovely there, and having Dan or Leon around with me most of the time has been fantastic, but...I've never really felt like I belonged. So when he told me that, it got me thinking. I realized that I wanted to make myself a part of that story, too. I wanted to belong there." Softly, she added, "I wanted to come home."

Phoenix leaned forward and took both of her hands in his. "We have a saying here on Zi," he told her. "'The wanderer is always at home.'"

Willow smiled down at their entwined fingers. "On Earth, we said, 'Home is where you make it.'"

He nodded. "Exactly. Point being, you don't have to be cruising through space, or even holed up in Solas, for that matter, to feel like you're home. It's only a shift in your mindset, ultimately. You may have landed on Zi a few years ago now, but you'd spent far longer than that on your ship, so you're still a relative newcomer. These things take time. I have no doubt whatsoever that soon enough you'll feel as though you've lived here all your life."

Willow could feel tears gathering hot in her eyes, though she didn't know why. "How - how did you manage? With being uprooted from your homeland and having to resettle in the Republic? Do you feel like an outsider, too?"

"I think it wasn't until that very resettlement that I truly understood the meaning of that expression, to tell you the truth. Obviously, I've wandered very far. My hometown is nearly on the other side of the continent now. But you know what? I'm really happy these days. I've got Heinrich and Fuzzy, and as long as I'm with them, I'm home anywhere."

Willow sighed. There had been a new dimension, a new fullness to her life, since she and Dan had reunited, it was true. But if all she ever did was hide in his shadow, she would never stand on her own two feet. She would never really belong.

"Hey." Phoenix squeezed her hands. "Remember what I said. It's a mindset."

He was right, of course. She nodded, and straightened up a little bit. "When I get back, I think I'll - maybe I'll ask Leon if he can use some help with his research. On the _Globally_ I was already in training to be what could be considered a historian, so I probably already have the skillset he'd need." A slight uptick in the breeze whispered through the tops of the trees across the stream some distance away, and she turned her head to the gentle sound. "But more than that, things are going to have to change. I can't keep hiding."

"I wonder why you ever did to begin with," Phoenix murmured. "You've got so much to offer. So much to offer Zi! Think of how much has changed for this planet since you arrived, how many lives you've touched." He released her hands to begin ticking items off on his fingers, one by one. "For starters, I'm still alive. Twice now - no, three times - you've saved my hide. Which means a heck of a lot not just to me - thank you, by the way - but to Heinrich, too. Two brothers were reunited because of you."

The tears were gathering in Willow's eyes again.

"And Hafen has a new friend. And this Dan fellow met the love of his life, if that shine in your eyes whenever you talk about him is anything to go by." He regarded her beadily. "Don't think I haven't noticed."

She gave a shaky little laugh and nodded.

"What else? Oh, you wiped out an entire desert gang, who will never again terrorize either Solas Base or southern Europa at large. And thanks to you, another gang entirely was deprived of its leader, who will be brought to justice. Which means that Athraigh Town can prosper and thousands of people haven't, you know, lost their homes and livelihoods and everything they own. And this!" He pointed at the diary in Willow's lap. "You're even helping write the story of your village's past so that it isn't lost forever!" He took her hands again, putting his palms up against hers and interlacing their fingers. "Don't you see? Most people won't make the amount of positive difference over the course of their entire lives that you already have in just a few short years. You said yesterday that Dan had told you once that Zi might need a hero someday. Well, I guess she did...and aren't we all damn lucky that you came along." Willow was staring down at Aer's diary, tears streaming down her cheeks. Phoenix ducked his head so he could meet her eyes. "You belong here, Willow," he said, more quietly. "In the Wind Colony, and on this planet. You always have, since the moment you arrived."

She nodded, loosing her hand to swipe the tears off of her face.

"There are a lot of amazing things about you," Phoenix continued, more softly still. "But what might be the most amazing part of all is that for however much you've lost in your life - and you did lose literally everything that you had ever known - you continue to _give_ even more than you've lost. What did I say to you that day in the Gustav when we were looking for Fuzzy? You had every right to run away when you found me out in the desert, or leave me a greasy splat under Zeke's foot. But you didn't. That isn't who you are." He chuckled, shaking his head and looking somewhere past her. "And to think...you're not even done yet."

"Done?" Willow echoed, sniffling.

He spread his arms wide, to take in the trees, the mountains, and the desert beyond. "The rest of your life awaits you. And I genuinely can't wait to see what astounding miracle you'll pull off next."

He sat back, watching her, his face radiant in the starlight, a small smile playing about his lips.

Willow's heart went out to Aer Dírithe just then. All of the things that that incredible and courageous woman had had to accomplish, she'd had to do without someone like Phoenix by her side.

-.-.-.-

Time sped up once more, and dawn arrived with the swiftness of a shooting star. They had bedded down for the night in the meadow, admiring the silken arc of the Milky Way above before drifting off, only to be awoken mere seconds later, it seemed, by a pink glow capping the eastern mountain and the cheery morning calls of unseen birds and insects.

Willow sat up from her blankets, wiping dew from her hair. Looking over, she laughed when she saw Phoenix's fiery locks studded with the little silver droplets, too. "Morning, handsome," she said affectionately.

"Handsome?" Phoenix yawned widely. "I'm feeling a bit soggy, to be honest. You Republicans and your strange atmospheric phenomena!"

They breakfasted quietly and packed what few belongings they had used. The glow behind the eastern peak had brightened as it melted from pink to gold, and without saying a word, both friends knew it was time.

They faced one another, standing together in that sparkling meadow with their Zoids. "Third time, and it still doesn't get any easier," Phoenix sighed.

"It doesn't."

"May I propose," he said, "that we never again allow this much time to pass without seeing, or at least speaking to one another?"

Willow nodded. "I don't want us to...grow distant." It was a fear she'd been holding for a very long while, she was just now realizing. Wasn't that something that happened sometimes? The bonds between two people, weathered by the passing of time, could fail and fade if not consciously and repeatedly fortified.

But Phoenix was shaking his head. "That won't happen," he stated confidently. "You and me...we've been through enough together that we'll always be close. Even if years go by, we'll just pick right back up where we left off."

Whence came all these tears? Willow smiled through them up at his dear, radiant face. "You're right."

"Oh, please don't cry, Willow, this is hard enough as it is," Phoenix protested with a sniffle of his own.

"Can't be helped," she said softly.

Phoenix enveloped her in his arms, and she grounded herself fiercely in the moment, listening to his heartbeat against her ear, appreciating every facet of his presence beside her while she still had it. But time slipped away like water through her fingers, and when he stepped back, she knew that the water was gone.

"Remember what we talked about," he said, placing one palm over her heart. "Remember where your courage lies."

"I will."

He bowed gallantly, kissing the backs of both her hands, then smiled at her. "We'll see each other again soon. And I promise you, we'll never again be parted like we have been."

Willow smiled sadly back at him. "Take care of yourself, Phoenix. And thank you for everything." She kissed him on the cheek, lingeringly. As always, his face blazed scarlet immediately and he touched his fingers to where her lips had just been. He simply stood there, unmoving, gazing at her with those bright, brilliant green eyes, eyes that contained in their depths more devotion and love for her than she would ever be able to understand.

Was it? Love?

Yes.

Love.

She knew it was in her eyes, too, and she knew he saw it there.

"Be well, Willow," he murmured, and she watched him turn and climb, still red-faced, into Fuzzy's cockpit. The Helcat stood, turned, and trotted out of the little valley. She vanished again before she had even reached the sand of the the sun-soaked desert.

Zeke was waiting with gentle growls of sympathy when Willow turned away from where her dear friend had last been visible. "He's right, you know," she told the big wolf. "It really never does get any easier. Amazing, that." She was about to settle down beside him when, beyond his paw, she spied the rock she had sat upon two mornings prior, during their first visit to the mountain retreat. She studied it thoughtfully. "Maybe...maybe let's not go back just yet."

Zeke agreed and followed her over to the stream's peaceful shores, where he settled contentedly down with a little whuff. The air was balmy and the sun was at last peeking over the adjacent mountain. Willow had retrieved Aer's diary and now sat down with it upon her favored perch. She opened the book to the last page, the last entry Aer had written, and silently read its contents, one more time.

 _ZAC 1899, Day 177_

 _We have all worked so hard to reach this day, the day the Oasis of Wind was officially incorporated. Not a one of us could have done it alone. That is the knowledge upon which I want this town's values to rest: that each of us matters, and that we are always stronger together._

 _How far I have come since I first began this journal! I have lost so much. I think that this darkness will always dwell within me, but it doesn't have to be everything that I see. One finds the light of hope in the unlikeliest of places. The key, I have learned, is to never stop looking for it._

Willow closed the diary, and looked thoughtfully over at Zeke's recumbent form. His white sheetmetal and orange canopy glass were shining brilliantly in the sun's rays, almost as if he were his own source of light.

She had stood resolutely, in deepest darkness, for a very long time. But now, she knew - there was always light to be found. There always had been.


	13. ZAC 2063: Chapter 13

_**Chapter 13**_

"You've well and truly outdone yourself, Willow." Leon gazed up at her in wonder from his desk, upon which Willow had plopped her armload of books, with Aer's diary, of course, at the pinnacle of the pile. "How can I ever thank you?"

She smiled shyly. "I was happy to do it."

"Did you run into much trouble? You were gone longer than I thought. I - I was a bit worried, you see."

"Nothing I couldn't handle. With a little help, of course." Willow tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and grinned at Leon's perplexed expression. "I'll tell you all about it sometime."

She bade him a pleasant afternoon, stepped outside, and set off down the street, not quite sure what to do with herself now that all of the excitement of her journey had subsided. Dan wasn't due home on leave for another couple of weeks at least, and she'd left Zeke at the small repair shop on the outskirts of the settlement just to get a once-over after the battle he'd participated in. The owner, whom Willow had not yet met despite being in the Wind Colony for over a year, hadn't been in, but Willow figured she would return soon. So what now?

Ahead, at the top of the distant hill across town, she spied her favorite shade tree. There would be peace there, in the cemetery. She wanted some time to think.

Willow had not gotten even halfway up the hill when she caught some unexpected movement out of the corner of her eye. To her left, she saw a middle-aged woman standing before a gravestone, a loose bouquet of flowers in one hand, speaking quietly to whomever had been buried there. She was just placing the flowers down before the stone, when a sudden gust of desert wind whistled over the hill. Several blooms scattered at the woman's feet, but one went airborne, blowing directly towards Willow.

Her well-honed pilot's reflexes allowed her to catch it in her hand before she even had a moment to think. She looked down at it in her palm: a tight, dark bud in the center of the flower gradually opened out at the edges into wide, glorious petals of a striking cerulean blue.

The woman, not having noticed Willow's presence, had hurriedly gathered the scattered flowers and was now looking about frantically for that one, special blue blossom she'd known had been in the bouquet, too.

Willow took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and stepped over to her, holding out the flower. "This is yours," she said shyly.

"Oh, heavens above! Thank you." The woman took the bloom from Willow's outstretched hand. "Blue nebula was my sister's favorite flower. Wouldn't seem right to leave her a bouquet without that one in it." She peered at Willow more closely. "Oh! I've seen you around the village, haven't I? You - you're Dan Flyheight's partner, aren't you?"

"Y - yes. My name is Willow." She tucked a wind-tossed lock of hair behind her ear. "I don't think we've met before."

"Lovely to meet you, dear. My name is Foscadh. I run the little mechanical repair outfit not too far from here."

"Oh!" So that's why no one had been around at the shop. "I actually just left my Zoid there," Willow said. "I was in an...unexpected battle a couple of days ago and wanted to make sure he was alright."

"Yes, yes," Foscadh was nodding. "You and Dan share use of that white Command Wolf, right? I see it by your cottage a lot."

"His name is Zeke," Willow said with a faraway smile.

Foscadh looked at her just then a bit more appraisingly, and more than a little approvingly, but only said, "Well, I'd be happy to take a look at him for you."

"I appreciate it. I would do the work myself, but there's still so much about Zoids that I don't know."

"Is that something that interests you?"

Willow nodded eagerly. "I love Zoids. And I would love to learn more about them, and how they work."

"I love Zoids, too. And I also love sharing that passion with others. Maybe when you come by later to pick up Zeke, I can show you some things."

Willow grinned. "That sounds great!" She looked at the flowers still in Foscadh's hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you. I'll see you later?"

Foscadh nodded. "Looking forward to it. Until then, Willow."

Willow waved and resumed her trek up the remainder of the hill, relishing the warm sunlight on her face, smiling to herself the whole way.


	14. ZAC 2064: Epilogue

**ZAC 2064  
** _ **Epilogue**_

At first the town was only a tiny speck on the distant horizon, but as Zeke approached at his usual tireless lope, it grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

They had left in predawn darkness, but now the sun was high overhead, having nearly reached its midpoint. She was right on time. It had been a pleasant, almost boring journey, with an early stop, of course, for a meal at the mountain retreat she favored so much. Foscadh, having passed ownership of the repair shop on to her talented young apprentice, had agreed to watch over the business while Willow was away for a couple of days, and had generously provisioned her with plenty of delicious rations for the trip, as well.

Willow looked down at the book in her lap. It was a hefty, handsome volume, bound in hunter green. Gold embossed script across the cover identified the book as "A Brief History of the Wind Colony." She still remembered the look of joy on Leon's face when she'd told him of her arrangements with Sophie to have his masterwork added to the local history collection of the Athraigh Town library. Willow had helped Leon with his research, of course, but really, the book was his baby, and they were both immensely proud of how it had turned out.

As Zeke approached Athraigh's northern boundary, Willow took in the numberless stalls crowded up and down the market street, the wares beyond reckoning being hawked and bartered and sold, the endless streams of people. Athraigh was alive with activity; all was as it should be. She smiled.

And then her gaze slid to the left, where a little metallic feline head was just visible on the eastern outskirts of town over a low sandstone building.

Fuzzy.

Willow's smile split into a wide grin as Zeke lay down. She unstrapped herself, opened the canopy glass, and stepped out into the brilliant sunshine.

-.-.-.-

* * *

 **Author's Note:** As always, my sincere gratitude to you, the reader, for having followed along this far. Special shout-outs once again to jdoug4118, for spurring Phoenix's creation; CB Magique, for astonishingly consistent reviews that not only were encouraging, but provided me with alternative ways of considering my work; and to Tigerhawk, who, in the course of my posting this story, transitioned from dear online friend of many years to my fiancé. (Being engaged to someone who loves Zoids even more than I do? Could I _be_ any luckier?!)

One more story featuring Willow is in the works, as is a fanfic set in this continuity I've established with the "Earthling" series. However, progress is agonizingly slow, so probably it's safe to say not to expect these pieces to be posted for quite some time, if ever.

I have become enormously attached to these characters - Willow, Dan, Phoenix, and Zeke - and would absolutely love to write more of them, however aside from the above I am largely out of ideas. Any submissions with plot suggestions that I'm able to actually work into fanfics will be gladly (VERY gladly!) credited, because I love these guys, and I need all the help I can get to remain in their company.

And lastly, for those of you who have read all of these "Earthling" stories, and been alongside me for that journey: thank you, thank you, a thousand thank yous. You have my deepest appreciation.


End file.
